Man's Resurgence
by DarkLight7491
Summary: After mankind was thought extinct for millennia, survivors reawaken and see that this world is ruled by cephalopods in brink of war. Will mankind live at peace with the cephalopods and help with their issues, or will their throne be challenged by the previous king?
1. Characters

**Some other information and the characters of it. If you want to read the story, go to the next chapter.**

 **Hello. Well, don't know what to say, but that. This is my first Fanfic ever, and really hope this goes well. Trying my best to make it interesting and somewhat accurate to both the game and IRL.**

 **The story will be during the Octo Expansion (Don't worry, no spoilers. At the beginning.). But there will be spoilers for the single player of Splatoon 2 and then the Octo Expansion later on.**

 **These are the OC that will be introduced in the following characters.**

 **All other actual Splatoon 2 characters will be included (not mentioning who, yet)**

 **Aside from these characters, all other characters from Splatoon 2 are owned by Nintendo,**

 **Now, if any character names are the same as in others. It was a complete coincidence since I have read very no fanfics (I'm new here and stuff)**

Characters:

Humans:

Clay Raymond: 17 year old head of Biological Research Lab. Dark brown hair, brown eyes. He's one of the developers of the Cryo-Pods and in the Cyberspace Defense squadron. Wears a light navy blue Kevlar infantry suit.

Edwin(Ed) Waters: 18 year old Technical Engineer trainee. Dirty blond hair, light blue eyes. He's one of the security guards in the Research Labs.

Kari Hoffman: 20 year old head of Defense. Long, dark orange hair, light brown eyes. She's also one of the funders for the VALHALLA organization.

Lela Adkins: 19 year old head of Cyberspace Defense squadron. Short, light brown hair, light orange eyes. She's a Medical Research and Care Trainee, and in the Electrician group.

Inklings:

Dustin Ramsey: 14 year old novice in Turf Wars. Blue, tentacle-less haircut (idk what it's called). He's a very innocent, friendly squid with the ambition to always get better.

Heather Barker: 17 year old expert in Turf Wars. Long, orange tentacle haircut. Aggressive in nature, yet always caring; hates getting shamed (very important , you'll see ;))

Charles Floyd: 15 year old student in Inkblot Art Academy. Green, spiked haircut. He's very mischievous and gets scared easily.

Elena Cooper: 16 year old paleontology student. Short, purple haircut. She's extremely curious and clever.

Octolings:

Jane Octaria: 19 year old Octoling in the Terrain Special Forces. Short, red tentacles. She is a skilled markswoman and tactician but is against military conflicts with inklings.

Sally Octaria: 14 year old Octoling in the Medical department. She is also Jane's little sister. Sally is also completely against military conflict with inklings, but is ironically a good sniper as well.


	2. Prologue

Prologue:

Pre-Molluskian Earth 2018:

After rising tensions between world superpowers over solutions against the North Korean nuclear threats, and the ever-increasing threat of rising sea levels, many entrepreneurs worldwide started investing in high altitude nuclear fallout shelters, but to no avail. While many were losing hopes, a private scientific organization named VALHALLA was rumored to research in cryogenics, along with a "genetic amplifier." Soon, the organization received massive funding from large businesses and corporations. Those rumors soon became a reality, and gave VALHALLA its overall goal "protect the human race". Months after VALHALLA's success, an unknown experiment with amplifying the intensity of a thermonuclear warhead detonated on the Antarctic continent. This released far more concentrated heat than any in human history, rapidly speeding up its gradual melting. To make matters worse, a worldwide computer virus was released by an unknown source. This shut down many refuges for the oncoming rising tides, except for VALHALLA, as it offered brand new security measured previously unknown to the world. Finally, as the last blow to humankind, the computer virus, now called the HELL virus, gained access to the world's nuclear launch codes and launched them at densely populated centers and towards other tactical spots. All of this being done by a mad man with the HELL virus, ended up wiping out most of the population centers in the deeper parts of countries, geographically speaking. Seeing itself as mankind's last hope, VALHALLA started cryogenic containment pods (Cryo-Pods) to preserve human subjects, and rename its goal to "preserve the human race."

VALHALLA institution: Biological Research Lab:

"All set and done," Clay told to Edwin as he finished programming the last of the Cryo-Pods.

"Do you think that these will actually save us? I mean, you're clever and all, but this hasn't been tested out to withstand long periods of time." Edwin questioned with doubt.

Clay looked up with a face of seriousness and fear" this is possibly the ONLY hope for humanity. While there is a chance of failure, doing nothing will get us all killed. And plus, there are people already hoping for this machines. We can't let them down by giving up. We HAVE to try."

The doors opened revealing Lela entering the labs "I reviewed your programming, and theoretically it should work without a hitch. The medical team is still placing first aid kits into the preservation locks as we speak."

"Good at least I'm not the only one believing in the Cryo-Pods." Clay said while glancing back at Edwin.

"Well, we better all be heading to the assembly to receive our Cryo-Pod numbers," Lela said while walking towards the assembly.

VALHALLA: Assembly room:

Kari Hoffman soon stepped up to the stage and lightly took a breath." As we all know, today is the day we all go into cryostasis in hopes to preserve the human race. With a number of 216 people being cryogenically preserved, we should know that we are not alone. Yet, I can't say the same for the people outside. Now on a different note, the "genetic amplifier" has officially been annulled for being highly unstable. It will be disposed of safely (hopefully) in order to prevent any accidents. Now, before I end up forgetting, go line up for your Cryo-Pod number."

Kari stepped off as well and got in line to await her number.

Some time later in the Cryostasis containment sector…

(Through the PA system), Everybody please get ready for the cryostasis process to initiate. All high ranking personnel, please head to the armory to pick up weapons and ammunition for preservation. Thank you.

" They're preserving weapons too?" asked Edwin to Clay across the hall.

" We won't know what will be out there in 12000 years, or who?"

" 12,000 YEARS, WHY SO LONG! Can't they just wake us up in a century or so?"

" The earth will still be flooded by then," explained Clay.

" 12,000 years should be enough for the sea level to go back to stable levels. Or at least we think so." Not only that but- " the PA system interrupted for a brief statement. Cryostasis process will begin now. Please stay calm and don't disrupt the process.

" Well, this is it." Clay silently told Edwin.

" Yeah. Guess I'll see you in a few millennia."

Their body activity soon started to slow down to a halt. Moments later, they were successfully frozen. Now a new world will await them…


	3. Chapter 1

Cryo-Pod Section 12

Year:14,018

 _Initiating re-animation process..._

 _10%...25%...62%...78%...91%...99%..._

 _Re-animation process complete. Now opening capsules_

 _(cough, cough)_

"I-Its finally over. Wait, w-where am I?" As Clay awakens from the cryostasis, he slowly begins to remember that he was just out of cryostasis, and this is one of the initial side effects. He looks around for Edwin and Lela. They were nowhere to be found. As his mind starts to settle, he soon remembers that they got their Cryo-Pod in a different section.

"W-was it section 11 or 10? Since Lela is a high ranking she must be in sector 10. But I think Ed was in section 5 as he's a guard. Why didn't they tell me their section number before we got on? Well, that doesn't matter anymore. I better go look for them." As he started to go into section 10, he was greeted by a mildly dozed off Kari stumbling on. "Hey there C-Clay, h-how are y-you fee-ling?"

"Well, I'm still recovering from the stasis, but I'm otherwise pretty good. Don't think I can say the same about you."

"No, n-not at all. I am very sensitive to sudden change, especially when regarding temperature. But, at least I wont have to fare into the unknown. You might though."

"Wait, why me? In fact, no one should. We have reconnaissance drones to do so"

"Yes, but they only have a limited range. People don't. But you shouldn't worry as much with weaponry and comms at your disposal."

 _Good morning to all. As you may now know, the Cryo-Pods were a success, and we have moved onto another era. We are 12,000 years ahead in time. Lots of things have changed, and we will need further intel on what is outside. For this reason, all military personnel must report to the armory room ASAP. Thank you._

"Well Clay, looks like you have to go. I have to make sure all defense systems are online and make sure the power grid is too." Kari gives a smile that ticks off Clay enough for her to notice. Clay walks away but bumps into both Lela and Edwards.

"Lela, Ed, I was looking for y'all"

"Well Clay, Lela went to go check up on all the systems of the building. I had to go get both my supplies and yours. We need the most skilled in wielding weapons, and you're pretty much a pro."

"Yeah, Dad taught me well. I'll miss him and mom too"

"Sadly, we all had to leave our loved ones as there wasn't much space for them in here." Said Kari as she was walking towards them. They all jumped as they did not expect here to be here.

"Now Clay, Edwards, go to the main entrance and get ready for emergence. Boss's orders. And you Lela, go check up if the Cryo-Pods are undamaged."

"Yes ma'am" Lela waved at the guys and went to inspect all the remaining Cryo-Pods.

As Clay and Edwards arrive at the main entrance, they see that it was only them going to the exterior. They then, they both were wait for a brief environment scan by the exterior sensors.

 _Environment scan initializing..._

 _Scan indicates no harmful amounts of radiation_

 _Humidity at 83.5%_

 _UV light index: 3_

 _CO2 levels are at 0.02%_

 _Oxygen levels are at 20.97%_

 _Nitrogen Levels are at 78.09%_

 _Argon Levels are at .93%_

 _Finishing remaining scans..._

 _Status: Hospitable for human life_

 _Oxygen tanks and Solar protection suits are not needed_

 _Maybe some sunscreen for sensitive skin types_

"Well, it sounds pretty nice outside."

"Looks are deceiving Clay. Remember last March? Looked sunny and then started to hail nearly instantly." The door soon opened. It was a long upwards tube from the underground to the surface. There were four ladders that only allowed four people to climb at once. They soon reached the surface after a little while and tried to open the hatchet, but it seemed to be stuck on something. After enough pulling, they both managed to open it and reached the outside, only to find three strange creatures looking at them.


	4. Chapter 2: The Encounter

**Sorry to keep you all waiting, just getting ready for school once more. Still expect at least a story a week, and chapters will be uploaded at 8 pm CST.**

Outside Inkopolis City: Year: M-2018 (Molluscan Time 2018)

 _In the outside of Inkopolis City, vast plains lay vastly untouched. Barren of buildings and people, very few do actually come here for its peacefulness and emptiness. Here, Dustin, Heather, and Charles are seen walking together after a long day of turf war._

"Dammit Dustin, why would you throw a beacon AS A WEAPON! IT'S NOT!" Heather yells furiously at Dustin after finding this out from him.

"Ah come on Heather, anyone could've done that. It's a common rookie mistake."

"You're kidding me right? A ROOKIE MISTAKE?! Not placing down your beacons is a rookie mistake. Throwing them as a weapon is just PLAIN STUPID!"

" I mean, in all honesty, he might've thought it was a splat bomb?" Charles points out, getting a glare from Heather that makes him move back a little.

"Not only that Dustin, but you really need to u-"

"Hey guys, is it me or did that rock just move" Dustin points out at the rock that just spun a tad bit

"What? No. Rocks don't move. Anyways as I was sayi-"

"Look. It moved again."

"DUSTIN, STOP INTERRUPTI-"

"I-I saw it too." Charles quivers out "L-look."

The rock then crumbles apart, revealing what looks to be a hatchet that leads underground. It then starts to open up slowly, making everyone pull their weapons out. All of the sudden, two figures rise from the inside of the hatchet, looking nothing like inklings. Creatures in what appear to be in a combat suit from foreign origins, carrying what appears to be weapons as well. The creatures, realizing that they have been spotted, point their weapons towards the group. One of the creatures presses a button on a bow, making one of its lights flash red. Almost as if synchronized, the inklings too aim their weapons at them. Except Dustin, who dropped his Krack-On splat roller on the ground.

"Dammit Dustin." Heather says at Dustin before looking back at the creatures."Alright, PUT YOUR WEAPONS DOWN!" Heather yells at the creatures as she points at them with her Custom E-Liter. She notices that the creatures seem confused at her command, making her angrier.

"HEY, DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?! PUT YOU DAMN WEAPONS DOWN!"

"H-heather, maybe they aren't inklings." Charles whispers out while slightly lowering his N-ZAP 89

"Don't be stupid Charles" Heather says in a now more relaxed tone "They're just playing dumb"

"Guys, they're leaving!" Dustin points out as the creatures submerge back down and close the hatch.

"HEY! WERE NOT DONE HERE! COME ON FOLLOW ME!" Heather yells while running towards the hatch. Dustin and Charles follow right behind. When they all arrive at the hatch, Heather begins trying to pry it open. Dustin and Charles take notice and begin helping Heather to open the hatch. After a few minutes, they all give up and leave the hatch alone. They start walking back to Inkopolis and talk about just what the creatures were.

"Okay whatever those things were, they did not look friendly, and did not seem to respond to our commands." Charles says while both Heather and Dustin are thinking of what to do.

"Hey, I think I know what we should do." Dustin exclaims. "Let's go ask Elena! She's very smart. She must at least give us an idea of what they could really be."

"You know what? That's the smartest idea you've had all day. Or in your entire life as a matter of fact."

Heather says, getting an eye roll from Dustin. They all then proceed towards Elena's house, which is in the suburbs of Inkopolis. They soon arrive at her house and knock on her door.

"Just a minute" Elena says. Footsteps are heard heading towards the door and three locks are unlocked.

The door swing open, revealing Elena in her Squid Sisters pajama.

"Hey you guys. What a surprise of you to come over."

"Elena, this is something important that we need you to help us with." Heather replies

"Oh, well come on in anyways" Elena says while widely opening the door for them. They walk into her two story house, with a messy kitchen to the right, stairs leading upwards in front of them, and the living room with a table to their left. They all proceed to the living room, where Heather, Dustin, and Charles proceed to explain to Elena what had just happened to them. Elena nods at the information given to her. She then runs upstairs and comes back with an old history book in her hands. Elena looks through the book to end up on a chapter titled _The Elder Race Before Us._ She proceeds to put the book on the table for a full view from everyone.

"Based on the brief description of their appearance and weapon design, they appear to be an extinct hominid known as _Homo Sapiens._ They were a race that ruled about 12,000 years ago, and were thought to have been wiped out by rising tides and a "Great Race War."

"But how would such a stupid looking animal survive what we could never even dream of surviving?" Heather says to Elena, getting a frustrated reaction.

"THESE ARE NOT JUST SOME STUPID ANIMALS!" Elena angrily yells at Heather.

"Of course they are, just look at how small their skull is. Even Devin looks smart next to them."

"What the hell Heather" Devin replies to the insult that Heather had just said

"Well Elena, humans achieved space flight long before we did, developed weapons capable of destroying cities in A SINGLE BLOW, and some information about them using genetic manipulation for their own needs. We still rely on a Zap-fish, that has been stolen TWICE, to power our city."

"But they're dead, so not so smart of a creature"

"Well, they might not be. With the information you gave me, they might have survived. Besides, water doesn't splat them on contact like us, and they can extend their lifetime in many ways as well."

"So are those things we saw humans or what?" Devin asked

"Possibly, but we would need more information on whether or not they are."

"W-what k-kind of inf-formation?" Charles stuttered

"Well, I could use some photographic evidence, and some audio of their language."

Heather then proceeds to grab her squid phone and starts to tell them her plan.

"All right, here's what we'll do. I will go to the hardware store to get something that can open up the hatch. Devin, you go get your video camera. Charles, you will go get some armor for the four of us-"

"Wait, what do you mean four of us?" Elena asked with a hint of fear in her voice. "I don't want to go there. It could be dangerous and I'm not very skilled with any weapon as well."

"Well too bad." Heather responds. "Besides, we need your brain to find out what they really are. Now, since Elena wasn't there with us at the hatch, we will have to meet up in the square at 5:15 and should arrive at the hatch at 6:00. Everybody know what to do?" Everyone gave a nod. "Good. Also, don't forget to bring a weapon, since I know one of you would've if I hadn't just told you."

"Wait, I have art class at 5:30, I can't go" Charles said

"And I have a paleontology lesson at 5:45" Elena also said

"Well, just call in sick and it will be just fine."


	5. Chapter 3: The Plan

**V.A.L.H.A.L.L.A. Assembly Room ( Right after going down the hatch)**

"CLOSE IT, COME ON HELP ME ED!" Now both Clay and Edward were able to close the hatch. Clay activated the vacuum lock, making it near impossible to open from the outside. Incomprehensible sounds were heard from just outside the hatch. It lasted for a few minutes, then it stopped. As soon as they both got back down, they saw Lela running towards them.

"What happened, why are you guys still here?"

"We encountered some squid-looking things that tried to attack us." Edward responded

"Why didn't you shoot it then?" Lela replied

"Well that's the thing. They looked pretty intelligent as they had both gun-looking weapons, modern-looking clothes, and what sounded like a language."

"Good thing that I turned my recorder on and that the drone was recording too."

"We should go show this to the media department." Clay stated

"I would love to come, but I have to go fix up some lighting issues. Also, don't forget to tell Kari about this. This might actually surprise her." Lela then waved at the guys and ran out of sight.

Edward and Clay then got to the media department and told the director to place both the audio and footage together. The whole process took around two hours Before leaving, they told the director to bring the footage to the assembly room so they can show it to Kari. They then went to the assembly room only to realize that Kari is in the main defense headquarters and she never leaves until she finishes. They then waited a few minutes until Kari arrived, looking quite confused as to why they were here so early?

"How did the mission go bo-" Kari was interrupted by Clay explaining to her what they had seen.

"So, let me get this straight. You guys saw squid-looking humanoids on the surface? What were you guys on?" Kari was having a hard time believing what both Edwin and Clay saw on the surface. Luckily, the director came by with the footage and played it on the main screen in the assembly room.

Lela was coming around the corner and stopped to see the footage. After the footage ended, both Kari and Lela were shocked at what they had just witnessed. The director then told Kari something that Clay and Edward couldn't hear. Kari nodded and the director left.

"Well, the director just told me that they had just confirmed that your audio had matched up to what I found in the defense headquarters an hour ago."

"What was it?" Clay asked

"Well, when they were looking for signals of any other possible survivors, they reached a signal with an incomprehensible language of some sort. With your footage, it would seem that these beings are at a technological level near ours. But the important thing is that the signal is still ongoing, and our system was able to access a huge area of interconnected networks, kind of like their internet. With both of these findings, our linguists are working nonstop to decode and translate their verbal and written language. With this information, they might be done in a few days. And when they are done, your mission will be to gather more intel on their culture.

"Wait, I just remembered something. Why are we doing any of this if I am a guard and clay is head of the biology department? Edwin asked

"Oh yeah, that reminds me, you were both promoted to our new special forces."

"When did we get promoted?"

"Just now" Kari grinned and got a tablet and handed it to Clay. "Read over this, it contains some things that we have found that you will need for your mission tomorrow. Now Clay, as head of biology, I need you to collect some type of samples of the creatures and study it. We need to find out their weaknesses."

"First hostile thing we encounter, and now we are trying to kill it. So much for pea-"

"SHUT THE HELL UP CLAY!" Barked Kari. "Change of plans. If you want to do something different than what I want you to do, then go ahead, but you will have to do it alone."

"That's completely absurd!" Edward objected. "What happened to "saving the human race". All this will cause is a higher risk of our extinction" Clay stated as well

"We only save the humans who can follow orders. The ones who don't are lying six feet under."

Both Clay and Edward suppressed their anger, as they knew this is what Kari was trying to do. Clay signaled Edward and they both walked away, and saw Lela, who was standing in the corner. All three proceeded to walk away towards their rooms.

 **Somewhere currently unknown...**

 _New broadcast detected. Initializing data scanning..._

 _Scan completed: Non-Inkling or Octarian transmission_

 _Scanning through stored data files..._

 _Scan complete: Transmission identified as Human_

 _Initiating protocol lookup_

 _Protocol found: Eliminate all survivors_

 **4:15 P.M. Next Day: Outside V.A.L.H.A.L.L.A. Building**

"Alright, if I was a city, where would I be?" Clay proceeded to pull out the tablet handed to him the day prior. The tablet began searching for the location of the transmissions. It pointed straight to where he was looking at. He immediately saw the buildings and a tower coming from the city. "How did I not see this? Only a 45 minute walk from here. Seams easy enough." He grabbed his backpack full of equipment, his assault rifle, placed his handgun on a holster, and put his helmet on. He pressed a button near his shoulder, which started recording video and audio footage of his trek. After getting inside the city, he noticed that all the creatures were squid-looking humanoids. They had what appeared to be a rather slippery skin. He remembered that he had to get a tissue sample, so he went and hid behind a set of buildings (behind the shops). Soon, an unaware inkling came along and leaned on one on the walls, and started using his squid phone.

"They have smartphones too?" Clay whispered. He began creeping in, and then jumped at the inkling, thrusting in a syringe and extracting their "blood". The squid screamed, turned to squid form, and swam away. Clay was shocked at witnessing the creatures morphing into a squid form. He then went to hide, as the inkling's scream alerted others to the scene.

"I better find another place in which to hide." Clay told himself. He then looked up and got an idea. He began to escalate the building. After reaching the top, he sat near the foot of a giant, gold plated, turtle (or tortoise) statue. He sat there for about ten minutes, until he had a strong sensation of someone stalking him. He turned to his left, and saw one of the creatures wearing a kimono staring right at him.

"Shit, I've been spotted" He proceeded to get down from the building and tried to run away. He soon fell to the ground as he ran into a group of inklings. The creatures he was looking at looked very familiar too.

"Hey, what the he-" Heather stopped as she realized what it was, dropped the drill she was carrying, and switched to her E-Liter. Charles grabbed the N-ZAP he was carrying, and Dustin started recording on his video camera. Clay drew his handgun as a reflex instead of using his assault rifle that he was carrying (because _logic_ ).

"Don't move a fucking muscle." Heather said while aiming the E-Liter right at his head. Clay realized that he was trapped, until he saw the kimono girl standing a bit back in the left. Clay then thought of an idea. He moved his head towards her, making the rest look at that direction, and gasped, realizing that that was Marie. Clay then sprinted away from them. Heather noticed and fired her still charged shot at him, hitting him in the back. He grunted and hit a random skateboard, making him fall. He quickly turned his body over and fired a shot towards Heather's E-Liter, piercing a hole right through it, and causing her to drop it. He then saw Charlie starting to point his N-ZAP at him, making him shoot his gun, and piercing through his gun as well. Clay stood back up and continued to run away, but got knocked to the ground from a shot from Marie's umbrella, which was a re-skinned splatbrella ( I know she mains chargers, but try explaining that without taking apart the umbrella). Marie then placed her foot on his chest, but Clay easily pushed her off. Heather and Dustin were charging at Clay. They tried to tackle him, but he simply pushed them back. Charles had went around him and jumped on his neck, but Clay grabbed him and threw him 15 feet in the air. This scared the rest as they realized his strength.

"What the? These dipshits are light as hell" Clay thought to himself. He ran away, once again, but no one chased after him.

"What the hell was that!? That's supposed to be a a human? They're strong as hell!" Heather remarked. "Damn, if only Elena didn't chicken out this morning, she would've been able to know exactly what it was. Wait where's Ch-CHARLES!" Heather and Dustin ran to Charles, who was still on the floor.

"I-I'm okay guys" Charles barely managed to say.

"Did you say that might be a human." They all turned to see Marie walking towards them. "Do you happen to know this creature?"

"O-O MY COOOD! IT'S MARIEEEE!" Devin squealed

Marie sighed."Please don't fanboy over me. Anyways, have you met it before?" Heather began to explain to her what had happened, and their plan to get into the hatch."Alright, I'll help you guys in this" Marie said. They began going to the hatch, bringing their equipment with them. When they finally arrived, Heather turned the drill on and started to drill into the hatch all while Dustin was still recording.

 **V.A.L.H.A.L.L.A Building ( Right after Clay ran away)**

Clay descended from the surface and ran to Kari, who was sitting the assembly hall eating a banana.

"Oh, you're back, and in one piece. Congratulations Clay."

"Here's the footage, but you have to get the guards out now." Clay told Kari. Kari gave a questioning look at Clay.

"Why, are we getting raided or something?"

"No, but I have a feeling that they might be following me."

"Did you try shooting at them? Kari asked

"(sarcastically) Oh no, I _completely_ forgot to use my gun. Of course I did genius."

"Chill down Clay. Anyways, anything about them in particular you would like to tell me about?"

"They are incredibly light, use some form of ink weaponry ( _turns around to show her the ink in his_ back), and can morph into fucking squids. Sounds like complete bull, but trust me, it's all true. Heck, you can even look at the footage to show you that I'm not lying" She proceeds to play back the footage. After a little less than an hour, the alarm sounds.

 _ALERT. ALERT. ALL GUARDS TO THE MAIN ENTRANCE NOW. A BREAK-IN IS OCCURING._

"Told you" Clay told Kari. Kari just rolled her eyes. The guards, including Edward still (Getting the "promotion" just meant having more work"), ran to the entrance and started to climb up, while some stayed on the ground, pointing their rifles towards the hatch. The drilling soon stopped, and footsteps were heard running away.

"SHIT! I don't thing the drill is working"Heather said after starting to drill.

"Huh, what's that sound" Devin asked

"Sounds like a klaxon alarm" Marie said

"We s-should get out of here. They might be coming up now."

"Don't be redi-" Heather stopped as she heard orders being shouted, and the sound of dozens of footsteps was getting closer to the surface.

"Everybody run!" Heather screamed as the rest grabbed their stuff and started running away (not swimming, as equipment here cannot be transformed as the weapons can).

"Okay Clay, I'll go get the linguists to come see this. We might just have the translators here sooner than expected. You can go to your room if you want." Clay then proceeded to go to his room to take a nap before going to sleep, not having a care in the world (for now, hehehe).


	6. Chapter 4: The Visit

**SPLATOON 2 NORMAL SINGLE PLAYER SPOILERS INBOUND. THIS IS YOUR WARNING IF YOU WISH FOR IT TO NOT BE SPOILED.**

 **After last night's incident, Dustin,Heather,and Charles too Marie over with Elena to discuss about the creature. In the V.A.L.H.A.L.L.A. Building, linguists, along with their IT, began to finish deciphering the language. They soon transferred the translations and the grammatical rules of the language into a single earphone piece wirelessly connecting it to the "main cracker" translating box in the waist. Edward and Lela were informed by Clay about the events that had occurred to him on the surface.**

 **V.A.L.H.A.L.L.A. Building Assembly Room**

"Alright Clay just as "planned", the translator." Kari hands Clay a small box. Clay then opens the box, revealing a single earpiece on the left, and a cassette-like box on the right. He pulls the "main cracker" box out, and hangs it on his right side of his waist with a built in clip. He then grabs the earpiece and places it on his left ear.

"Now Clay, to turn it on, you must simultaneously press and hold the buttons on both the earpiece and main cracker." Clay proceeds to do so, which results in a green light shining on both of the devices. "Now, by turning the knob in the main cracker, you can select the language to translate. It will translate it to English by default, of course. The creature's language is derived from an Anglo-Japanese mixture, along with apparent roots from the ocean, so we decided to call it Oceanic. The language will appear as the first option, so you don't have to go all the way to the O's. The range of the translator is around 15 meters (or 49 ft), so don't expect to understand conversations from far away. The earpiece is powered by the main cracker, which is solar powered. The devices are both waterproof and drop proof, but that doesn't mean that you can be careless, as this is the only set currently available. Got all of that Clay?" Clay was setting up the devices while she was explaining, so he was now ready for his mission.

"Hold on a sec. Why can't you make more if you were able to make this one in a few days? Clay asked.

"Well, simply because this was built beforehand. Language changes over time, especially in 12,000 years, so we had built a device that is capable of translating any language. As long as the language was decoded beforehand, of course. Now that your briefing is done, you will have to go and try to locate those beings again and communicate with them. Oh, almost forgot to tell you the best part about the earpiece. When you speak, the earpiece will translate your English into Oceanic, making them think you actually speak their native tongue. Now, back to the plan. You will try to meet them again by making your presence known in Inkopolis."

"Inkopolis?" Clay asked at the name.

"Oh, apparently so, that's the name of the city you went into. That is also the city where you are a wanted suspect, based on police reports. Luckily for you, they already know that ink is ineffective on you, and that you are far stronger than any of them. This means that hopefully no one will try to engage you. And a very important thing you must know. If for any reason you are engaged, do not use your gun. Currently, they are not in understanding with our weapons and do not want them to. Instead, use your physical strength and training to subdue anyone. You may only use your gun if attacked by a horde of them, otherwise don't. Also, don't let them find out you're human. Not yet, at least. Now go and try to meet them again."

"Wait, I know I'm wanted and all, but how do I just attract the creatures I met yesterday?" Clay asked before getting a grin from Kari

"That's all you Clay."

 _ **The same unknown place of last time...**_

 _ **Human detected at location known as "Inkopolis Square"**_

 _ **Inkling induced aggression against the human was also detected**_

 _ **The human was superior in the attack**_

 _ **Initializing probability calculation...**_

 _ **Calculation complete**_

 _ **Possibility of second human-inkling contact today: 65.2%**_

 _ **Sending attack droids to last known location of first contact**_

 **Tentakeel Outpost, Octo Canyon**

 _ **BTW, if you HAVE NOT beaten the Splatoon 2 single player (not O.E.), and wish for it not to be spoiled, stop reading the story until you have finished this, as there are SPOILERS in this next section. Otherwise, keep on going.**_

An inkling known as Agent 4, rises from the manhole into a platform. She (Agent 4 is a female here, OK. Good) comes face to face with both Marie, and the recently rescued Callie. Marie then approaches Agent 4 while closing her umbrella, while Callie is just being Callie.

"So Marie, what do you need me to do this time?"

"Well, I don't know if this is a good idea or not, but what the heck. Your mission will be out of the ordinary."

"More than me fighting Octarians and a giant robotic DJ death machine single handedly? I don' know about you, but that's pretty tough to top."

"Ok, maybe not THAT out of the ordinary, but you still have to do this. Have you heard in the news about yesterdays incident?"

"Yeah, some armored-looking thing that took on many Inklings, including you, and won. Wait, I have to kill it? Sweet this is so-"

"What, no. I don't want you to kill it. Rather, find out what it wants. You can hurt it a little if you want, but I don't recommend it."

"Wait, how am I going to know where to find it? I don't know where it lives."

"Well, I know where it came from, but it is currently both inaccessible and a death sentence. Instead, go look for it out in the square."

"And, how are you so sure that it will come back again. I mean, if it ran off, it means we scared it off."

"I have a very strong feeling that it will. And besides, you have no life and spend ¾ of your day there. If it doesn't come back, you will have missed nothing."

"Ooh, Marie, can I go with her? Being here with you is nice and all, but I want to see the creature up close." Callie asked while jumping out of her seat.

"You are perfectly capable of making your own decisions Callie, you don't have to ask me. Just don't get kidnapped by it."

"Yay!" Callie cheered in joy

"Well, looks live I have to keep an eye out on Callie. Anyways, when do I go?" Asked Agent 4.

"Right now."

"Oh, ok then. Come on Callie, lets go."

"I'm coming." Soon Agent 4 and Callie morphed into their squid form and swam out to Inkopolis Square. After arriving, Callie put on some shades (brainwash free) on to not be as easily recognized. They both just sat for a few minutes while chatting about anything that popped into their heads. Callie then saw a figure on to of the shops and pointed it out to Agent 4. Suddenly, the figure was knocked back by highly pressurized ink from another figure in the roof.

 _ **A few minutes back...**_

Clay powered on the translator, and then dialed Kari with the same earpiece. "Well, here I am again. I know they will return here, since this is a very populated area. But then again, I'm not very sure that I will see the first three."

"Maybe that one other inkling told them to butt out"

"Yeah mayb- wait, what's an inkling?"

"Apparently so, that is the name of the creatures you encountered."

"Then why is the language called Oceanic and not Inkling?"

"Because other creatures might speak that language, and we are not promoting speciesism."

"...Ok... sure. Anyways, since they haven't arrived just yet, I'll just lie back up on the roof."

"Lazy-ass piece of shit."

"Hey, why are you talking to yourself?"

"Screw you Clay."

Clay waits for a few minutes, he lays back and relaxes until he sees a figure move to his left. He looks over, and gets shot by highly pressurized ink, knocking him off the roof.

"Ah, shit" Clay says in pain.

"What the hell is going on Clay?"

"I don't know, but I just got knocked out of the roof."

"Ok, do what you must, just don't use your gun."

Clay then gets up and looks up to see the figure jumping down towards him. The figure soon comes into full view, revealing it to be a crescent shaped droid-like machine (think clone wars droideka). The machine then proceeds to fire its main weapons (a Gatling gun in each arm with a hose connecting it to a main ink tank in its back) at Clay. Clay once again falls to the floor, but this time he is able to retrieve his handgun, and fires it, landing a shot at its head. The machine sparks at the point of impact, and tumbles down. As it does this, more of the machines (lets call the machines troopers) appear to be coming from the right side of Inkopolis square (right of Crusty Sean's food truck). Two of the troopers suddenly get covered in ink by a splat bomb thrown by Agent 4. The troopers proceed to fire at Agent 4 and Callie, when Clay runs towards them and kicks the table up, blocking the incoming ink being shot at them. Clay manages to head shot the two troopers covered in ink and an additional one as well. Agent 4 looks around for Callie, but she is nowhere to be found. Suddenly, the last two troopers are knocked down by Callie, who flanked them with her roller. Those two troopers manage to survive, but get chased by the Inklings in the square. As soon as the crowd leaves, Clay puts his gun away and begins to speak.

"Hey, y'all better watch yourselves, you might get hurt. Holy shit, this works! Wait, why the hell did I not test it before heading here? Oh shit, I said that out loud didn't I?" Both Agent 4 and Callie's jaw drop at seeing the creature speak their language perfectly (and vulgarly too).

"Wow, you can speak!" Callie exclaims "Wait, you're not a human, are you? Only humans can make something like this"

"What, no. What's a hoo-man?" Clay says, trying to conceal his species identity. Clay's face is shown having an idea. "I'll explain everything tomorrow, I just need to get something. Or should I say someone?. Anyways, meet me back here tomorrow at 4:00. And bring anyone else you think should see me." Clay then runs back to the hatch.

"What just happened?" Agent 4 asked in confusion.

"Do not know, but we should listen to him, or her, and come back here tomorrow. Let's also bring Marie, and those other ones as well."

"Uh sure. Let's tell this to Marie first, ok?"

"Sure. Now lets go!".


	7. Chapter 5: The Plan 20

**I'm back! Sorry about the delay. Had a massive homework pileup and an internet shortage. But things should now be back on schedule!**

 **Also as a heads up, this chapter will contain some O.E. spoilers (or something like that), so if you wish for it to not be spoiled, don't read this yet.**

 **That one place, still unknown...**

 _ **Attack mission report: Failure**_

 _ **Language barrier seems to have been broken.**_

 _ **Initiating secondary back-up plan...**_

 _ **Infiltrating spy unit no. 3.1.4**_

 _ **Civilian name: Jane**_

 _ **Other Relatives: Young Sister: Status: Currently Testing...**_

 **Back at the institution right after the fight(V.A.L.H.A.L.L.A. Is annoying to type every time, so it will now be referred to as the institution. Plus, it sounds fancier).**

Clay is seen quickly climbing down the ladders and then dashes past Kari.

"Hey Clay, why are you runni-"

"No time to talk, see you later!" Clay then sees both Edward and Lela talking at the end of the hallway.

"Hey guys, I need to talk to y'all."

"Hey Clay, how are you dude."

"I'm fine Ed, but I need you both to join in on something."

"Ooh, is it a super secret spy mission or something?" Lela asks.

"What, no, this isn't a movie. It's something serious. I need both of y'all to help me communicate with the Inklings."

"How so?" Said Lela. "Ed has only seen them, and I haven't even gone to the surface. Why would you possibly need us for your mission to communicate with them? And, did you say they're called Inklings?"

"Yeah, based on translations, that's what they call themselves. Pretty weird, right? Anyways, I need both of your skills here. Ed, you're pretty much a lawyer, right?"

"Wait what, a lawyer? My uncle only taught me for a week."

"A week more than me, so it counts, and Lela, you are a doctor, so you can help me in analyzing the Inklings."

"A doctor? I'm a freaking medical trainee! I haven't even performed on an actual person yet."

"Well, too bad because I won't look for anyone else. Besides, you're the ones I trust the most, if at all. And you guys will be able to see the city of Inkopolis with your own eyes."

"We did already. We saw the footage you brought back with our own eyes." Lela stated getting a chuckle out of Edward.

"You know what I mean. So, will you come tomorrow?"

"Sure" Edward and Lela said

"Good, because I would've forced you to anyways."

"While you're here Clay, what's with the Kevlar suit? I have always seen you wear it?"

"Well Ed, this was given to me by my parents. They were always overprotective ,enough to make me one for "stray bullets", but now that they're gone, I wear it to always remember them. And plus, it's fucking bulletproof-ish. Kevlar suits aside, we will go meet up with the Inklings at 4:00 tomorrow."

"Hold on, how will we communicate with them if only you have a translator?"

"You will tell me what you want to say, and I will say if for you. But I will tell Kari if she can get us some constructed."

"Enough chit-chat, let's go get dinner. I'm starving." Edward pushes them aside and runs to the cafeteria. Clay and Lela chuckle a bit and follow Edward.

 _Right after last night's incident, Callie, Marie, and Agent 4 went to see Elena, Heather, Dustin, and Charles. They once again talk over what had happened and what Clay told to both Callie and Agent 4. They decide to meet up once again at Elena's house the next day to talk about the plan they had just made._

 **Next morning at Elena's house...**

"Alright, let's review the plan" Marie said while sipping her coffee. "We will speak to the creature, find out what he really is, and his intentions. Also, find out what the heck were the machines that Callie and Agent 4 told me about."

"This plan seems to have more holes than good ideas" Elena pointed out.

"Says the one who bailed on us when we were going after him" Said Heather, in an angry tone.

"Also, why do you keep calling it a he? It could be a female for all I know" Said Charles

"Does that really matter right now? But actually, how do you know? Did you get personal with it?" Marie reacts by whacking Heather on the head with her umbrella. "Ow, what the he-." Heather gets whacked again.

"Language!" Marie said "Since this creature doesn't really trust anyone, Callie will have to be the one he trusts."

"Why me?"

"Because you are too nice to be untrustworthy, unless you wear shades."

"Shades?" Asks Dustin

"So, we all good with the plan?" Everyone else just look at each other without saying a word.

"I'll take all of your silence as a yes."

 **Back at the institution (same time as in the scene above)...**

Edward and Lela are seen walking towards Clay in the assembly room tinkering with the main cracker's settings.

"Hey, what are you doing with the cracker?" Asks Edwards

"Aaaand, done! Well, I have some very good news. I just came from speaking with Kari, and she told me that any other wireless headset with a microphone can communicate with the cracker simultaneously. That way, we can all talk with the Inklings."

"That's so cool! Let me go get my earpiece." Lela runs to her room to get her device

"I'll go get mine too." Edward also goes to his room.

"Man, they ran off fast from me. Do I smell or something?"

Edward and Lela come back with an earpiece each, and Clay begins to set the connections up. After pairing is complete, testing is done to ensure that it really works, at the expense of looking weird AF to the rest at the assembly room. They then leave to grab their equipment for their trip.

 **BTW, a few O.E. Spoilers ahead**

 **FINAL WARNING!**

 **Same unknown place as before (some of you might know where it is already. )**

A large facility is seen, housing complex machinery and blue/green ooze on the floors of this facility. Here, many non-inkling creatures are seen in jail cells. A large, booming voice is then heard.

 _Selecting spy no. 3.1.4..._

 _Full civilian name: Jane Octaria._

A large screen is turned on, showing an octoling and her background information.

 _Status: 19 year old female_

 _Terrain special forces member_

 _Skilled markswoman and tactician_

 _Against Octo-Inkling combat_

 _Parental units: unknown_

 _Siblings: Sally Octaria_

A robotic arm is seen approaching a cell. The cell opens, allowing the arm to capture the octoling inside. The arm then brings her to a separate room where she is locked in a chamber.

"Aah, let me go! Someone help!" She is seen struggling to open the chamber, but to no avail.

A mysterious, robotic voice "Do not worry, this will not hurt a bit. Only a lot! And besides, you should be proud to be another test subject of this technology. This process will allow me to give the host set instructions, which will be used on a special someone soon enough." The chamber starts beeping, starting the process.

"And you get to do something no one else has. You will go to a wondrous place!...

The promise land."


	8. Chapter 6: The Spy: Part 1

**Well, back at it again with the O.E. spoilers (Don't worry, they're the same spoilers as last chapter, less even!).**

 **Inkopolis Square at 4:00**

 _In the shadows, a presence is felt wandering about. An entity, forced to do the bidding of another, has risen from the unknowns. Now like a predator, it stalks its prey._

"Here we are you guys" Clay said. Both Lela and Edward couldn't believe their eyes.

"Wow, nothing like back home, that's for sure." Edward told to Lela

"Eh, not bad for seafood. Lela responded, getting a mocking look from Edward. "And by the way, why do I feel like I am being watched."

"Maybe that's why." Clay says while pointing to a group of Inklings approaching them.

"Oh, they're here, good." Said Marie while taking a picture of them on her squid phone. "Now, I need to see how much you really know about us." Marie does her signature pose and Callie joins in too. "Do you know who we are?" Marie asks. The rest of the Inklings look at the three.

"Uh, talking squids?" Answered Edward.

 _Under her breath: You uncultured swine "_ No _-_ I-I mean we are, but who ARE we?"

"Your turn Clay, I already answered." Clay examines Callie and Marie for a few seconds, then thinks for another few seconds.

"Hmm, I don't know, actors?"

"I mean, we were in TV interviews, and a few movies" Callie replies "They're not far off."

"Well, now that we told you who we are, tell us who YOU are." said Marie

"We didn't agree to anything, so we don't have to say anything" Lela replied

"Hey Ed, aren't you suppose to be the lawyer here?"

"Shut up Clay" Edward answered. Edward then pulled out a sheet a paper and placed it to the side of Lela"s face.

"Lela, I also feel like we're being watched." Callie then points to the three and begins to tell each one their name.

"So you're Clay, a guy, you're Edward,another guy, I think, and you're Lela, a girl, right?" The three nod at Callie "And Edward, you got really close to Lela, so you two must be dating" Both Edward and Lela's face turn red.

"W-what, no. We're just friends." Edward says.

"Yeah, and he's too weird for me" Lela says

"Oi, that's rude, even if slightly true" Edward responds.

"Slight? Dude, you make me look normal" Clay says.

"Good job Callie, look what you caused." said Marie.

Heather then moved in front of Callie and Marie. "Okay, let's get to the point before this conversation goes any more downhill. First of all, I was told that you were spying on us Inklings. Why so?"

"For the same reason anyone would. To collect behavioral data of your species and compare it to ours." responded Clay. "Not only that, but we needed to know of your intentions after showing hostility towards us."

"So you then decided to throw us around like rag dolls in our second encounter."

"After you decided to engage me in a 3v1 unknowing of my capabilities"

"Jeez, can y'all use normal words? My brain is starting to hurt." Dustin complained.

"Since when did you have a brain?" Charles replied, surprisingly shocking Heather the most.

"Dammit dude. Stop being a Heather." Dustin replied

"A what Dustin?!" Heather angrily replied while balling her fists and walking towards him to punch him. As he neared him, a charger having a lock-on was heard, followed by the sound of it being fired. Heather was being aimed at, but was not hit as Charles pushed her away, making the shot hit him instead"  
"CHARLES, NOOO!" Charles's body fell to the ground, as the shot was not strong enough to splat him. The rest looked at the direction from where the shot came from, to see an Octoling with a blue piece of goo on her face to the left. The Octoling charged up another shot, and head shot Clay before he could finish drawing his handgun. Clay was also knocked to the ground, but took little damage as he had his helmet on. The rest were firing at the Octoling managed to dodge all but a bullet fired from Lela, which hit her left arm. The Octoling morphed into her octopus form and began to swim away in an ink trail that she had made earlier. The rest was on hot pursuit of her, chasing her over Inkopolis for 5 minutes. As the Octoling reached a dead end with an un-inkable wall, she prepared to super jump but was shot by Heather, knocking her out, but not splatting her ( _sheesh, their aim sucks)._ Marie picked up the unconscious Octoling and looked at the blue piece of goo that laid on the floor.

"I'm going to need to take her with me to ask her some questions." Marie stated.

"This bitch hurt my Charles, and I need to know why the hell she would do this!"

"Okay, we can take him with us to heal him back up."

"Hey, we also need to go, as to know more about y'all. That way, we can be able to help in any of your issues." Lela stated, making Marie think of what to respond.

" _Hey, are you sure that she's actually the lawyer, and not you"_ Clay whispered to Edward.

" _That's not how lawyers work Clay"_ Edward whispered back.

"Okay, Heather, Dustin, and Charles can come. But only Lela can come, not you two."

"That's sexist" Edward said.

"This is my world, and I say what we do here."

"Okay, Louis XIV" Clay said, only getting a confused look from Marie in return.

"Don't listen to him. He a nerd." Edward said

"It's "he is or he's a nerd" not "he a nerd". Learn to speak" Clay responded.

"See. A nerd" All the Inklings and Lela walk to a manhole, where they descend to the unknown. Clay and Edward just laugh at the fact that Lela just went down a manhole into a sewer (boy are they wrong). Clay pulls out his phone and is able to track the position of both Lela and Edward by using the auto locator implanted in their helmets. Clay and Edward can only wonder what will happen with the interrogation as they wait patiently outside on the roof of the shops.


	9. Chapter 7: Octolings Again

**Now, next chapter might be delayed a day or so, as tropical storm Gordon will be heading here soon. I'll try my best to keep a constant schedule. Also, I'm open to any new ideas to interconnect sploon 2 events with the humans.**

 **WARNING, WARNING! SPY NO 3.1.4 HAS BEEN FREED**

 **DATA LEAKS HIGHLY POSSIBLE**

 **AGENT X PRODUCTION: IN PROGRESS**

 **MISSING INGREDIENTS: FINAL TEST SUBJECT**

 **FINAL TEST SUBJECT: SALLY OCTARIA**

 **STATUS: PROGRESS NEAR COMPLETE...75% COMPLETE**

 **Tentakeel Outpost, Octo Canyon**

... _whsa...whas-sha...w_...Wake up

The Octoling soon awakens to a place unknown to her. Around her stand three recognizable Inklings, Callie, Marie, and Agent 4. Along their side stand two unrecognizable Inklings, the Inkling she had shot , now in a bed, and a tall creature wearing a full body combat suit and helmet.

"Where am I? Where's my sister? Sally? SALLY?!"

"Whoa there, take it easy. We just want to ask you some questions." Marie says while placing her hand on her shoulders.

"Why the hell are you keeping this bitch alive! SHE HURT MY CHA-"

"SHUT THE HELL UP HEATHER!" Heather was flabbergasted at Marie's response, and so was everyone else. "Look, I'm sorry for saying tat, but we really need to find out what's going on. You Octoling, what is your name?"

"M-my name is J-Jane. Jane Octaria."

"And you said you had a sister named Sally, right?"

"Yes. We were locked in some large facility as test subjects. She went on to another part of a facility where her memory was erased. When that was over, she began her tests, along with an old man who was stuck there. I was locked in a jail cell for upcoming experimentation. The experimentation was the blue goo on my face. That was an ooze that forced me to attack y'all against my will."

"Hold on. You said that an old man went with your sister? An old man with a beard and cane?"

"Precisely!"

"That must be gramps. Wonder what he and 3 are doing."

"Was the goo also used for genetic enhancements?" Lela chimed in

"Well, I'm not sure. All I told you is just what I heard. But the goo was not invented, rather a stolen invention. It came from the long gone "Humans" or whatever they're called"

"We prefer the term Homo-Sapie-" Lela covered her mouth after realizing what she had just said.

"I KNEW IT. YOU ARE HUMANS!" Callie yelled

"Callie, were you not paying attention to the conversation just a few minutes back? They are humans, they said it themselves."

"What! We never said that?"

"And if you never did, why are you so concerned about it?"

"Because, we are not of your species, but we are also...n-not humans."

"Very convincing story Lela."

 **Back in Inkopolis Square...**

"Clay, this is Kari. How is the mission going?"

"Uh pretty well. Lela is interrogating the Inklings."

"Wait, why aren't you?"

"I don't know. They just wanted to speak to her and not me or Ed, which sounds very suspicious, but thanks to the tracker that YOU implemented, I can track her location. Now, if she takes off her helmet, then the trackers are worthless."

"She better not take her helmet off. We need to conceal our identity."

"Yeah, our identity was found just a few minutes ago. That is, if the Inklings actually payed attention to the conversation."

"DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH OF A SECURITY BREACH THIS IS!"

"Relax Kari. Besides, now that they know we're humans, they will treat us like their supreme beings."

"And how do you know that they will?"

"They should."

"There's just no point to arguing with you, is there?"

"There is. It's just that you will always lose."

"And the translator, is it okay?"

"Surprisingly so. I just don't have it right now, as I gave it to Lela in order to communicate with the Inklings."

"Well, at least you didn't get into any conflicts the inklings, right?"

"Not with Inklings, rather something that looked like them. An octopus looking creature."

"They call those Octolings. They're like Inklings, but not"

"Like Inklings, but not. Lovely explanation."

"Where's Ed at?"

"He's just taking a nap. A nap that I was trying to do until you called me."

Thirty minutes passed until Lela is seen coming up the manhole.

"Hey, you're back" Edward said, still slightly sleepy after his nap. "What did they tell you?"

"To be honest, that was the most useless/dramatic interrogation ever. All I got is that the Octoling was mind controlled by the blue goo, which sounded very close to what the genetic amplifier can do."

"I think I know what we should do to get more information about them, but you're not going to like it, especially Kari."

"Well what is it Clay?"

"What if we take one of them into the institution. That way, there will be no arguing between Inklings, as only one will come, and by telling a bit about ourselves, they might tell us more about them."

"Well, if Kari permits that, who will come?"

"Let's take Callie. She seems pretty-f"

"Did you just call her pretty?" Edward interrupted

"Pretty friendly, Ed. Not only that, but she saw that I defended them from the troopers, so they'll trust me."

"Your plan sounds so loosely tied and stupid that it should fail in seconds. But since you're Clay, the one whose plans somehow work, it somehow might succeed."

"Good, now all we need to do is tell them about the pla-"

"I heard everything." Marie said. She had been standing over the manhole since the plan was being mentioned. "Now, like Lela said, this plan is stupid, but it's all we have to get to know you humans."

"We're not huma-"

"Lela, they already know. Kari also knows about it. In fact, let me talk to her about the plan

 _A few moments later..._

"Like always, she allowed it. Marie, would you like to send Callie with us, or do you have someone else in mind?"

"Honestly, she might be the best choice. She is actually very curios about you, and trusts you for defending them in the attack. Just don't let ANYTHING happen to her, or else."

"No problem Marie. So, bring Callie over here tomorrow at noon so I can take her to the institution."

"Oh one question for both Edward and Lela." Marie asked with a slight grin. "Are you guys dating?"

"No we are not! Why do you keep asking?" Lela said.

"Callie just really wanted to know." Marie laughed at the faces that they were making.

They all went back home and awaited for the next day.


	10. Chapter 8: The Human Tour Part 1

**Hello, luckily, I wasn't flooded(almost), so no delays! Brief warning, near the end might feel like a lecture, so you might fall asleep.**

After returning to the institution, Clay was chosen by both Lela and Edward to show Callie around the institution, as he knew her the most (even if he was with her for a short while). Kari also told them about improvements that could be done in the Main Cracker (translator box, in case you forgot), and wanted them to test it out. The improvements would allow for more accurate communication with the Inklings. Currently, the Octoling language was being studied, which was pretty much Oceanic with a different accent. In Tentakeel Outpost however, Callie was bothering Marie and Agent 4 about her excitement of the trip. It wasn't long before Agent 4 left and Marie was trying her best to stop Callie from speaking anymore.

 _The Next Day at 2:30 P.M._

 **Institution Assembly Room: _  
_**

Clay, Edward, and Lela are sitting, talking about what they (really Clay) should show Callie about the humans. While in the middle of the conversation, Kari walks up to them and begins telling them about the improvements that have been done to the Cracker. She also told them about the rooms that he was not allowed to show Callie, the Biological Research Room, the Data Management Room, the Armament Storage Room, the Power/Electrical Room, and the Experimental Testing Facility.

"Did you get all of that Clay?" Kari asked.

"Of course I did. Just don't be surprised that I forget about it when I actually do the tour."

"I am serious, there is confidential information that they shouldn't know. You being head of the biological research team, should know the best why I am telling you this."

"Wait, what DO you know about them that you haven't told us?" Edward asked to Clay and Kari.

"We are not allowed to disclose that information...for...security reasons. But there is one really important thing we should All know about their biology. We have found that their body is made up of a ink-like substance that is hypotonic when in contact with water, especially fresh water. Yet, they seem to produce a substance that can pretty much neutralizes that effect in their salivary glands that allow them to eat many foods that we do. Long story short, pour water on them, they die, so don't do that."

"There is ONE other interesting thing that Clay found out that he can tell y'all!" Kari said, making Clay look rather uncomfortable. "Go on, tell the what you are _so embarrassed about."_

"No U" Clay responds

"Well shit, got me there." Kari responded, getting confused looks from both Lela and Edward. "But on a serious note, make sure she doesn't touch too many things, as we haven't completely found what is and isn't harmful to the Inklings. That way, she doesn't get any diseases, poisoning, allergy, or something along those lines."

"Understood" Clay responded "To sum it all up, I shouldn't do anything that can get us or the Inklings killed."

"Yes, precisely, in a weird way." Kari said.

"Well, I'm going to get some stuff to show Callie." Clay said, suddenly making Lela laugh.

"Like what, Clay?" Lela said.

"Shut up Lela."

"Luckily for Clay, you can't reproduce with them, but have similar organs to perform it." Kari interrupted, immediately giving both Lela and Edward an indescribable look on their face.

"Hey, I didn't do it because I wanted to, she told me to do it."

"I was just following the directions you always tell your trainees."

"O-On second thought, I think someone else should show her around." Edward said

"Well, too late for that. Clay is the only one allowed to do it now, and I don't feel like changing anything." Kari said. She then waved and walked away. The three stood in awkward silence for a few second until Edward decided to say something.

"You should probably go get whatever you were going to show Callie."

"And I'm going to go...do...something." Lela said, with a whole lot of awkwardness in her voice.

The three went away in separate directions, leaving the assembly room empty once again. Clay returned to the assembly room a while later to go bring Callie, although feeling weird doing so, thanks to the conversation he had recently. Clay headed to the opening, and began to put on his suit, finishing off by putting on his helmet.

 **Inkopolis Square**

"Callie, why are you here half an hour early? You know how much I need my sleep." Mare complained

"Then you should fall asleep BEFORE 1 A.M. " Callie responded

"I have things to do. I have to protect Inkopolis from threats, which makes me wonder why we don't have a military to do this."

"You're right Marie. I mean, it's not like there's something big threatening Inkopolis, besides whoever sent those robots."

"I think they're called Troopers. Yet, I'm not sure where I heard that name (she didn't)." Callie then takes out a small notebook with writing in it.

"What's that you have Callie?"

"Oh this, it's just a list of what I should ask Clay about the humans. But this is just the things that I will probably forget. The rest is in my head."

"Because you must have a lot of space up there."

"Meanie." They stood in the shade, waiting for Clay to arrive. A few Inklings passing by told them how much they looked like Callie and Marie (the irony). Then, Marie spots Clay reaching the city, and begins to tell the crowd that Off the Hook is giving out free tickets for their concert outside the city limits. The Inklings then rush out, leaving Inkopolis all to themselves.

"He's here!" Callie yelled, rushing towards him. Clay gets startled, causing his hand to go to his holster by reflex, but stops as he remembers that Callie is very energetic (by what Lela told him).

"Oh, sorry. You startled me for a second." Clay said. "Now, get ready for your tour about the institution. Damn, that sounds painfully boring."

"Yeah, LETS GOOO!" Callie yells in excitement. Clay tells her to follow him, and Callie turns around to wave at Marie. "Ooh, is it true tha-"

"How about you save the questions for when we actually get there?"

"But I really want to ask you! Pleassse!"

"Fine, what is it?"

"What happened to your species?"

"Of course you would ask that. Anyways, four things caused our demise, well, almost demise. First, there were rising tensions between many superpowers, basically the most powerful states on Earth. This caused for people to be paranoid about a nuclear holocaust"

"What's a nuclear holocaust?"

"Just imagine a weapon brighter than the sun that can destroy a city in a single blow, and sends particles that kill you inside-out. All of that times 10,000."

"Wow."

"Yeah, secondly, there was an experimental thermonuclear warhead, or an anti-matter bomb prototype, that made our most powerful bomb look like a toy. There were apparent miscalculations in the storage of the warhead, and it ended up detonating, speeding up the Antarctic ice melting process to incalculable levels. This added to our third problem, which was global warming. This was the process of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere preventing heat from escaping, heating up the Earth. Ice helps to reflect the sunlight from the Earth, but with over an area of 5 million square miles of ice gone, the temperature began to skyrocket, melting more ice. Finally, a mad scientist/professor created a computer virus, called the HELL virus, which shut down many existing nuclear shelter, except ours, and launching all of mankind's nuclear arsenal on the world. After this catastrophe, the institution, Or V.A.L.H.A.L.L.A., began cryostasis. After that, we can only guess." Callie looked extremely perplexed of all the information he gave her.

"Wow. Give me a few minutes to process all of that, ok?"

"I'll continue when we get to the institution."

They walked the rest of the way in silence. Clay began to think about what happened to the remaining population that did not go into cryostasis.

 **HAHA! Left it at a cliffhanger! Don't worry I won't do this very often (unless necessary).**


	11. Chapter 9: The Human Tour Part 2

**Institution Main Entrance**

Clay descends from the ladders, being followed by Callie. A machine pops out from the left wall, and begins to scan them both with a beam, being more concentrated on Callie than in Clay. The machine beeps for a second and retreats back into the wall.

"What was that?" Callie asked.

"It's just the bio-hazard scanner. The beam scans you, and then uses an Ultraviolet light to kill any microbes in our skin. It just took longer to scan you, since you're not human."

"Oh, that makes sense." They walk to the end of the hallway, leading into the Assembly Room (imagine a _really_ big cafeteria-like room with a high ceiling; the walls are white).

"Wow, this is a huge room! Do you have concerts here?"

"If only. This is the Assembly Room, where everyone meets up when needed." Clay the points into the left side of the Assembly Room, where three hallway entrances are seen. "The far left hallway contains one of the bedroom sections. Next to that are the storage rooms, where some people store clothes, furniture, etc. Finally, the last hallway leads to the indoor garden."

"An indoor garden? That's so fresh!"

 _mentally "Who says "Fresh" anymore?"_ "Yeah, but it's just plants and stuff." Callie then looks to the hallways on the right side of the Assembly Room.

"What about those hallways?" Clay suddenly remembers that that is where the Science and Digital departments are. "Just where all the nerds hang out."

"Says the one who is in charge over there." Both Clay and Callie turn around to see Lela standing behind them. "What? I thought you were going to tell her that,"

"And I thought you didn't want to come."

"You're right. I just went to use the bathroom, and saw you showing around, so I just stayed a bit longer. Anyways, I've got to go. Bye" Lela then leaves them, going to her room.

"Never mind her. I think this is a good time to answer some of the questions you have." Callie then pulls out her notebook, and begins to look through the pages.

"Ohh, this is a good one. How many humans were there?"

"Depends what time period. It varies from almost 8 billion 12,000 years ago to a few hundred right now."

"8 BILLION! How were there so many?!"

"Well, we reached these numbers as we found ways to efficiently grow crops to feed our population, we had somewhat stable governments/societies, and enough natural resources for growing food, water, and energy."

"I wonder how many Zapfishes you needed?"

"What's a Zapfish?"

"It's what powers our city."

"We didn't need that, or have that as a matter of fact. We mainly relied on fossil fuels, used wind, water, and geothermal power as renewable energy, and beginning to expand on nuclear energy."

"What's nuclear energy?"

"It's harnessing the power of atoms with fission. Just don't explore that as a power source, since a small mistake can kill a large amount of people."

"Okay then, another question." This keeps going for about an hour and a half until a growling noise is heard.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Callie said, with slight fear.

"Sorry, that was my stomach growling. I'm just a bit hungry, since all I had for breakfast was a banana. Actually, that gives me an idea. Come on, follow me to the cafeteria." They begin walking straight through the Assembly Room to end up reaching the cafeteria, with about twenty people having breakfast/lunch.

"Callie, I need you to stay here for a moment. I'll be right back."

"Wait, don't go." Clay runs towards the cafeteria kitchen, and vanishes from her sight. Some people look at Callie for a few seconds, and resume back to eating. A few seconds later, Clay runs back with a plate full of a variety of fruits.

"I'm back. Now, since we're in the topic of food, I would like to know if any of these fruits look familiar to you." Callie looks at the plate, and picks up an orange.

"Ooh, this is a squid orange. At least that's what we call it. What do you call it?"

"An orange."  
"Oh really? I thought it was something cooler." She then grabs a few grapes. "And this is a squid leg grape."

"We call it a grape."  
"Can I eat them?"

"Don't ask me. You're the Inkling." Callie hesitates at first, but then proceeds to eat a grape. She then eats all the grapes in one quick scoop.

"Mmm. That was delicious!"

"These were grown from our garden. They were planted long before we awakened."

"You mentioned something about _cry-e-o-stasis_ or something like that? What is that?"

"Cryostatsis is the process of having your body preserved in frozen conditions. Other animals did this, but just for the winter. We had to do this for THOUSANDS of years. The process is _reaaalyy_ complicated, so I won't try to explain it. But one thing I want you to explain. I have found out that your species find water to be lethal. How do you maintain yourselves away from the rain?"

"Light rain doesn't do us any harm. It's only bad when it's ALOT of rain. That doesn't happen very often in Inkopolis, but it does in many other places, which are uninhabited. Yet, we can eat many types of food because of the glands in our mouth. Speaking of eating, can I eat this orange?"

"Sure, why not. Actually, I'm also going to eat an orange, I'm still starving."Clay begins to think/eat the orange while Callie peels her orange, struggling for a bit. Moments later, a large thunder is heard. "The hell? Is it raining?" Clay pulls his tablet out of his pocket (these are very small tablets btw) and begins to check footage from an external camera, which was placed just recently.

"That's a big storm. Good thing you're in here, or you'd be dead."

"That gives me more time to ask you some more questions!"

"God dammit." About 45 minutes pass of Clay answering Callie's questions when Callie's phone rings.

"Whoa, you guys have phones?"

"We do. Hmm, it's Marie." Callie answers the call and begins to talk with Marie. They talk softly enough for the translator to not pick up the sound. She hangs up and turns to Clay.

"What did she need?"

"She wanted me to ask you if I could stay."

"Wait, why?"

"She had something come up that I couldn't go to, and she doesn't want me to be alone."

"Isn't that other Inkling with you?"

"You mean Agent 4? She's out right now."

"So, she trusts someone of a completely different species, who both you and her barely know?"

"She says that you looked pretty trustworthy."

"I'll have to ask Kari. Hold on a moment." Clay leaves and comes back about 5 minutes later.

"What took you so long?"

"She said you could stay, but she'll need you for something later."

"For what?"

"Some more questions. "

"This is a perfect time for me to tell you about me and Marie."

"Marie and I, not me and Marie."

"This isn't how our language works. Your translator thing might need some more work. Now, it all starts when we were kids."

 _In his head "Well, hope I don't fall asleep."_

 ** _Little side-note: Marie never called Callie._**


	12. Chapter 10: The Human Tour Part 3

_**Unknown Transmission (a different "unknown")**_

 _Man and War are one,_

 _Each depend on each other,_

 _Therefore, all wars will end_

 _When mankind does..._

 **The Institution 10:00 P.M. (same day as previous chapter)**

Hours passed of Clay and Callie asking each other questions about their species. It's now sleep time for the staff, and Clay is speaking with Kari about any available place for Callie to sleep in.

"Clay, I already said that we have no more bedrooms, or any room as a matter of fact." If she wants, she can sleep in the Assembly Room."

"But she told me that she doesn't like to sleep in very large, empty, and dark rooms. Not only that, but we can't leave a bad impression on her."

"Then how about she sleeps in your room and YOU sleep in the Assembly Room."

"I think my room will scare her more, especially since noise is always heard at night. By the looks of her, I'm pretty sure she'll be scared of that too."

"Isn't she an adult or something?"

"She's 19. So an adult and not an adult."

"Then she should stop being scared of everything."

"That's like you trying to stop being a bitch. _Thinking: Now I know why Marie really worries about her._ "

"Then let her sleep in your room WITH you. That's the last option."

"What?! Hell no! Do you know how wrong that is?" 

"Firstly, she's not human, so it'll be like sleeping with a very intelligent pet. Also, just sleep on the floor or something, and let her sleep on your bed. Just clean up beforehand. We don't want the room to traumatize her with how unorganized that room is."

"Looks like that's all I can do. She better leave tomorrow then. I will not want to do this more than once." Clay heads towards Callie, who is in the Assembly Room, waiting for him.

"Yay, you're finally back!"

"So, there's good news and bad news."

"What are the good news?"

"The good news are that you have a place to sleep that isn't the Assembly Room."

"Then what are the bad news?" 

"You're going to have to share my room with me." Callie gives him bewildered look. "Yes, I know that's weird, trust me, but I have a way to not make it so weird."

"What will you do?" 

"I'll just sleep on the ground."

"Oh, ok. Also, does it get cold in here?"

"A little."

"That's good! I love the cold."

"That is good. Mostly since we don't have any extra blankets or anything here. Preserving things tend to get expensive." Clay opens his bedroom door slightly. "Just let me clean it up a bit first."

"You know, I represented team messy on splatfest."

"Well, I'll at least clean up a bit-. You represented messy on splat-who?"

"Splatfest. Didn't I tell you about it?"

"I don't think so. Just tell me again while I clean up my room a bit."

"So, a splatfest is a monthly-ish celebration where two things are pitted against each other in turf war. The winner is determined by the higher score in popularity, solo battle, and team battle."

"And what's a turf war?"

"Did I seriously not tell you? Must've been distracted. Well, a turf war is a battle for turf control between two teams of 4. The winning team is determined by who has the higher turf control by the end of the match. But don't be fooled, you need to attack the opposing team too. You use a variety of weapons to splat the opposing team, causing them to respawn on their spawn point." Callie notices Clay frozen in place, with a look of horror in his face." Are you okay?"

"You're telling me that you _ACTUALLY_ _KILL_ each other _FOR FUN_ ?! I thought that we were messed up killing each other, but to do it as a game? That's so wrong. And this is a way to celebrate? Might as well have a purge every Sunday here."

"I-I never thought of it that way. I guess it is a bit wrong."

"To be honest, at least you don't actually die. Some people back then sacrificed others to their gods for a good harvest/rain. And the splatfest sound like any other sport we have. For us, the killing and respawning is morally wrong, but so were a lot of things." Clay finished cleaning up his room, and let Callie in. "It's getting pretty late, so we should sleep already. Oh that reminds me." Clay then heads to his drawer and pulls out a bag. "If you want, I have some pajamas that you can use to sleep a bit more comfortably, although, they're a bit big." Callie takes them in excitement.

"Thank you!"

"There's a closet so you can go change into your pajamas." Callie runs into the closet and comes back two minutes later. The pajamas are beige colored with light red vertical stripes. The pajamas, of course, are too big for Callie (Clay's 6' 0" btw). Callie jumps to the bed and gets under the coverts. Clay laughs at her actions and heads to the closet to change. He comes out a minute later and lays down on the floor, using the clothes he changed out of as a pillow.

"We should sleep now Callie, because we wake up at 5:00 here."

"I like waking up early."

"Then this is the place for you. Good night."

"Good night."

"Shit, I have to take off the translator off. If you need something, poke me so I can put the translator on." Clay takes off the translator and puts it on the top of his drawer."

"su %% vvhn& &!?%## $kbby! "

"Uhh, good night."

 _Callie's POV_

"Good night Clay!"

"h $#$, bi&#% %$*"


	13. Chapter 11: Unfolding

**Next Day...**

It's 5 A.M. In the Institution, which is the time everyone has to get up by. As usual, Clay is still asleep, on the floor. Strangely enough, Callie is not present in the bed. Clay slowly begins to open his eyes, thanks to the sound of faucets being opened, showers being taken, and people engaged in conversation. Clay's eyes widens as he finds where Callie is; she's sleeping with him on the floor. Normally, this isn't an issue for Clay, as space isn't much of an issue, and neither is people being very close to him. The issue is the pajamas. The pajamas has a robe as a shirt and normal pants. Since the robe was very large, it ended up slipping off, leaving Callie's bra exposed (The Inkling's biology will be explained later, but as a side note, I'm no biologist). Clay then remembered that the sheets were very thin (budget costs) and did very little to insulate, so she went to sleep with him for his endothermic biology.

 _In Clay's mind "Why does she look so...Why am I even attracted to her? She's a goddamn squid with legs, and breasts. Wait, why the hell does she even need breasts? It must not be used to produce mi-"_ Callie began to move side to side, and ended up inches from his face.

 _In Clay's Mind "Clay, don't even think about it. She's a squid, remember? Think of a human girl you like instead. Nope. Not her. Definitely not her. Hell no! Shit, why are half of them assholes, that makes it far more difficult._ Callie then begins to slowly open her eyes. Clay notices, and immediately closes his and pretends to still be asleep.

 _In Callie's mind "Ah, my robe! So that's why I was so cold. Good thing he didn't notice, this is so embarrassing. I should change before Clay or someone else notices."_ Callie stands up and begins to grab her clothes from yesterday to put on. She heads to the closet, and closes the door, prompting Clay to get up, which he does. He begins to look through his drawer for fresh clothes, all while trying to forget Callie without a shirt. Clay grabs the translator and puts it on, being followed by Callie exiting the closet.

"Oh, hey Clay. L-Looks like you're awake."

"Yeah, all the noise woke me up."

"Oh, sorry if I woke you up."

"No, I mean the noise from the outside. Speaking of outside, do you think that you'll be able to go home with Marie, not that I don't want you here, just wondering."

"Oh, uhh..." Callie's eyes dart left and right. "N-No, I can't. M-Marie had just called, and said that I needed to stay a bit longer." Clay knew that she was lying, as she never talked to Marie today. At the same time, Clay couldn't expose her, as that would just expose him of being awake and looking a bit like a pervert. Still, Clay wants to expose her anyway possible.

"Really, wow, I wonder what's happening. Could you tell me what's going on with Marie, because I could try to help her."

"N-No, I c-can't b-because..."

"Because what?"

"B-Because Marie never told me! She said that it was crucial to keep it classified."

"Then why-" _ALL DEFENSE PERSONELLE TO THE MEETING ROOM IMMEDIATELY!_ The P.A. System interrupted Clay.

"What could they want now?"

"What happened Clay?"

"I don't know, but I have a feeling that I might know something about this. Callie, are you hungry?"

"No, why?"

"I could bring you some breakfast before I leave if you want."

"No, I'll go to the cafeteria if I'm hungry. Besides, this sounds important, and you shouldn't waste time on breakfast."

"Okay then, I'll be back soon." Callie lays down on the bed, thinking of the lie she's been saying to Clay. Meanwhile, Clay is walking to the meeting room, when he notices something odd going on. Armed personnel, including Edward, are carrying inside a large object covered up by a light blue sheet. Behind them are more guards, wearing heavily armored exo-suits. Clay heads towards Kari, who is seen finishing up talking with a guard.

"What the hell is going on Kari?"

"Wondering the same as you. All the guard told me is that 5 machines approached in formation to the hatch, and began to charge up some sort of cannon. The guards came outside and began to fire at them, while the machines fired back. Oddly enough, the cannons did no damage to the guards. Luckily, one of the machines is still intact and will be taken for examination. I think you should really go there, as you were outside the most and the farthest. After that, please come and tell me, I don't want to be left blank." Clay nodded and headed to the meeting room. (meeting room is in the farthest left of the three hallways on the right side of the Assembly Room). Clay entered the room, filled with not only deference members, but high ranking officials as well. A man (named Tony;mid-40's) walked to the podium at the front of the room and began to speak.

"Our guards have reported an attack by 5 machines, armed with some sort of energy weapons. Luckily, when the cannons fired, they did nothing to the guards. The guards managed to get one of the machines intact for examination. And I have been informed that we have intel on the outside world, which will most certainly help in identifying the origins of this machine." Tony then looked directly at Clay. "Clay, would you come here."

"Certainly." The guards began to take the sheet off, revealing an enhanced version of the trooper that Clay had faced back in Inkopolis, having an energy cannon instead of the Gatling gun, and having more armor. "I recognize this machine. It's called a _trooper,_ yet the ones I've faced had a Gatling gun on each arm that shot ink. I have my suspicion that these troopers were made to primarily go against the Inklings, and are unsuited to go up against us."

"Thank you for the intel, Clay. Guards, take the machine into the Engineering Room (there's a lot of rooms in this place) for deconstruction. As for you Clay, we need you to find out more about the machines, their origin, and their objective." Clay nodded and left, heading back with Callie.

 _ **Back at his room**_

"Clay, you're back!"

"Good news Callie, you get to leave this room."

"Wait, why? Do they not want me in here?"

"No, you're coming with me on a reconnaissance mission. Don't worry (slightly sarcastically) _I'm sure Marie wouldn't mind."_

"I-I guess not..."

 _ **Engineering Room...**_

A guy and a girl are seen looking through data files on the computers, the guy looks closely at the trooper and realizes something. In the left side of the "head" of the trooper, a small symbol is seen (Assassin's Creed logo with the number 21:6-7 in the middle).

"This-this symbol is the exact same as the one shown by the HELL virus. That was the symbol of the mad professor. How in the world did this get here?"

"I'm guessing that it somehow survived the test of time?"

"I'm hoping it's just that?"

"What, do you think he's still alive?"

"I mean, the man was a genius and knew cryostasis technology."

"You're so paranoiac."


	14. Chapter 12: Decrypting

**The day has come. There will be actual spoilers in this chapter for the O.E. So if you wish for it to not be spoiled, I would advise you to not read this chapter. Otherwise, ignore this.**

 _ **Tentakeel Outpost**_

While Clay, Edward, Lela, and Callie were away, Marie stayed with Jane to try to gain more information of her whereabouts. Heather constantly went to the outpost, sometimes with the slightly better Charles.

 _In Jane's mind..._

 _...miss-...failed..._

 _...backup...execute..._

 _...jan...need...jane..._

"JANE! Wake up already." Marie looked at Jane with a hint of impatience. "I've been calling your name for the past half an hour, what's up with you? Did you not get enough sleep?"

"No, it's not that, it's just that...I-I kept hearing these voices in my head the entire night. It kept going and going, until you woke me up."

"So a bad nightmare,huh?"

"I guess so." Heather is seen dashing to them, carrying a worrisome face.

"What's with the rush Heather?" Marie asks. Heather stops, panting while she speaks.

"D-Didn't you h-hear? T-There were the troopers a-again, but they were h-heading for the h-humans."

"Well, that's not so ba- OH SHIT, CALLIE'S WITH THEM! WHAT HAPPENED, IS CALLIE OKAY?!" Heather just stared at her.

"Relax Marie, the humans instantly shut, or should I say shot them down, although, I saw them bring one inside."

"They must've wanted to know exactly what was attacking them."

"And besides, if you're so worried about Callie, why don't you just call her?"

"I can't, calls can't reach her. Not only that, but she should've been back last night."

"Why didn't you just go to her? I'm pretty sure Clay told the guards to not shoot you."

"I have to stay here to watch over Jane."

"You could've asked me to do it."

"I don't trust you with her. If I let you alone with her, you would probably strangle her to death."

Jane suddenly jolted from her "bed" and ran towards them.

"I remember! I remember everything!"

"Remember what?"

"I remember seeing who was behind everything and why it all happened."

"Okay then, please tell us. Come on Heather, this is important." They all moved to the couch in front of the TV.

"So, before I was "wiped", I remember seeing the thing giving the orders. It looked like a telephone booth. I know this sounds ridiculous, but hear me out. Oddly enough, they gave me an explanation over what was happening and why. I was told that the telephone booth, named Tartar, was actually a sentient machine, or what they call an A.I. that was created by "the professor" to pass on human knowledge, but saw everyone as unworthy, so he planned on trying to get the Inklings into anarchy by sending these machines to attack. After doing so, he would later use a large weapon to cleanse the Earth of life to start anew. This all changed when he saw the humans to still be alive, and had to take them out, as they too were viewed as unworthy. Now he plans on using the super weapon earlier and to release "what should've wiped them out" again."

"Is that it?" Marie asked.

"There is one last thing." She grabbed paper and a pencil from the table and began to draw a symbol. The symbol had an incomplete human letter "A" and human numbers in the middle. "This was a symbol that was all on the walls and on the machines that attacked you."

"Marie, I think Elena can help in deciphering what the symbol means. She knows the human language better than any of us." Marie stands in silence, thinking of what to do.

"Okay, so Heather, you go to Elena, and show her the symbol, and see what she finds. Jane and I will go to Clay and ask for his help, and bring Callie back too."

"Sounds like a plan." They all stepped into the manhole and left to Inkopolis.

 _ **Back with Clay and Callie**_

It's been over half an hour since they left the Institution. They both walked in silence, thinking about what happened in the morning.

"Hey Clay, what do you think about the troopers attacking you guys?"

"I'm a bit worried, not from us getting attacked, but from who might be behind this."

"And who may that be?"

"Someone that us in the Biology/Genetics field call "The Professor" or "The Mad-Man"."

"Who was he?"

"He was a very bright Geneticist/Computer genius who wanted to make humanity as perfect as possible by using genetics. His ideas were plausible, but not only did we have a lack of funding for his work, but his ideas were in most cases morally wrong. His ideas incorporated using "inferior" human bodies as material to improve the "superior" humans. So, after being rejected, he mysteriously disappeared, just a few days before the HELL computer virus was released. Normally, I would think he was dead, but he had access to Cryo-Pod blueprints, and understood them as much as I did."

"If he were still alive today, what might happen?"

"Either he dies, or we all do." They walked for a few more minutes in silence, until meeting both Marie and Jane on the way."

"CALLIE!"

"MARI-"

"WHY DID YOU NOT COME BACK ON TIME?!"

"I wanted to stay a bit longer."

"Wait, so she didn't call you last night?"

"No, I just wanted to stay because I liked you-I mean your food. And besides, there was no reception back there."

"Enough with the chit-chat, I need to tell you something about who sent the troopers." Jane said.

"I think I might have an idea too, just hope I'm wrong."

"We just can't talk about it here, someone might be watching us."

"Let's go to the Institution."

"And I'll call Heather to meet us there too."

"So we have to walk MORE?" Callie whined.

"Grow up Callie." They all began to walk to the Institution.

"So how well did you sleep, Callie?" Marie asked.

"Fine, I guess."

"Did you get a room or something?"

"Y-Yeah, one to myself."

"No she didn't, she had to share my room."

"Hmm, I bet you slept _really_ then."

"N-NO, WE SLEPT SEPERATELY!"

"Yet you went and slept with me on the floor. Wait, SHIT!"

"How did you know? Weren't you asleep? Does that mean that... Wait, YOU SAW ME WITH NO SHIRT ON?!"

"I NEVER SAID THAT?!"

"YOU PERVERT!"

"You have A LOT of explaining to do Callie. And so do you Clay." Marie said.

"Don't mind me, pretend that I'm not here." Jane said.

 **Elena's House**

 _knock knock knock_

"Coming!" _Thud, thud, glass shattering_

"Hey Elena, I just wanted to-"

"The symbols on the machines?"

"Yeah-wait, how'd you know?"

"I know everything, and I have no life. Come in."

"What was that shattering noise?"

"Just a vase. The symbols were shown on the news, symbols that are in ancient human texts. Unfortunately, they are not good at all. They come from someone known as "Professor" who wishes to cleanse the Earth of all life and start anew. Also-" Heather's phone rings.

"Yeah, mhm...okay then, bye."

"Who was that?"

"Marie, she wants you and I in the Institution ASAP"

"Institution, as in where the humans are?"

"Yeah, why?" 

"LET'S GO THEN!" Elena grabs Heather's arm, and dashes with her to the Institution.


	15. Chapter 13: Who did it?

Clay, Callie, and Marie were arguing against each other over what happened. Jane unfortunately had to hear all of this through the trip.

 **The Institution:**

"Hey Clay, who else are you bringing in?" Edward said.

"I'm bringing Marie and Jane to take a look at the troopers. Also, if Heather comes with someone else by, let them."

"Wait who's Heather again?"

"The bitchy one."

"Oh, that's Heather. Got it."

"Now that we're inside, I can show you the images of the troopers." Clay said while taking out his tablet.

"Those are the exact symbols that I saw." Jane said.

"Do you remember who made the symbols and their purpose?"

"It was created by an A.I., who was created by a "Professor", to pass on human knowledge to the next worthy species. It plans to wipe out all life, including all surviving humans, and starting anew."

"Did this A.I. also have access to genetic manipulation, advanced machinery, and ways to preserve bodies?"

"Precisely. And how do you know?"

"That's where the bad news begins. A man, which we call "The Professor"/"The Mad Man", was a genius with those exact characteristics/expertise that the A.I. has. I have a bad feeling that either the A.I. has maintained the professor's ideas, or that the Professor himself might be alive."

"No matter the situation we're in, we must look for more information in order to know how to stop it. I could send Agent 4 in a reconnaissance mission."

"Where is Agent 4 anyways?"

"Right now she's visiting family in the back-country. She said that I could call her back only in emergencies, so this counts. Sort of."

"Let's not bother her for now. Besides, that's too dangerous, as not only are your weapons nearly ineffective against these models, but the troopers were specifically made to kill Inklings. Human weapons can stop them, but you have no training in wielding our weapons."

"So what do you propose?"

"I would say either hacking directly into their files, or sending drones to attach cameras/microphones on specific areas for constant surveillance."

"But will the drones be at risk of being hacked themselves?"

"Possibly, but we will control them in a remote location, distant from the Institution. The information will be downloaded onto a physical drive and used on a laptop to show everyone in the Institution."

"Sounds a bit complicated, but what do I know."

"Now, the question is where we would establish the remote location, as it can't be near Inkopolis or the Institution."

"How about in Mount Nantai?"

"What mountain is that?"

"It's a mountain somewhat distant from Inkopolis."

"Isn't that mountain located in Japan?"

"Where's that?"

"Like a few thousand miles from here. Did you rename the mountain or something?"

"I don't really know." 

_Mentally "I swear we were near Las Vegas before we went to sleep"_

"Hey Clay, here's Heather and her friend!" Edward shouted to Clay

"Hey Clay, so let me introduce you to Elena."

"OMG A HUMAN! THEY'RE ALIVE!"

"Yep. We're alive, but we won't be for long, and neither will you if we don't plan out what we should do."

"Elena told me that she knows a bit about what's actually going on with that one Tartar."

"Who?"

"Tartar. The one who's behind all of this. That's its name."

"Oh yeah, forgot to tell you that was its name." Jane said. Elena approached Clay while opening her laptop.

"While I was at home, I managed to get more information about Tartar through two unknown transmissions. One of them came from deep underground, while the other came from near Mount Nantai. By examining the second transmission, two individuals are trying to help other two escape the underground. Sadly, I haven't been able to know who is actually sending the transmission, or speaking, as the transmission come back very broken." _Elena_ _Mentally: "Where's Charles when you need him..."_

"And what about the first transmission?"

"I haven't been able to decipher it yet. They seem to be using a foreign language, one that's not human even." 

"There's a good chance it's a human language, seeing as the Professor was fluent in other tongues."

"Isn't there only a few human languages?" 

"No, what gave you that idea?"

"Then, how many are there?"

"Around 6000, give or take a few hundred. Only problem is that the remaining humans fluently speak a few."

"AROUND 6000! WOW! I never knew humans were capable of that."

"How dumb do you think we are?"

"I mean...you have a small brain."

"So? A sperm whale"s brain is far larger than ours, and they're not the sharpest tool in the shed."

"How about we get back to the plan?" Heather said.

"Yeah, Heather's right. But the question still remains, where will we make our base?"

"We could do it on the empty area on the opposite side of Inkopolis. Not only that, but the view on the ocean is amazing." Callie stated

"Great idea Callie, but humans should go there, since we don't find water deadly to the touch."

"I've been near the ocean many times. Not only that, but I know a path that goes safely around Inkopolis." Marie said.

"Good, now all I need to get is-"

"I think I should go with you, you might need my computer skills." Elena said.

"And you might need my knowledge of Tartar." Jane said

"Alright, you three can come, but that's it. Now let me get the drones, suit, and weapon."

Clay, Marie, Jane, and Elena were ready after half an hour. They proceeded to leave before Marie stopped them.

"What's the hold up Marie?"

"We're not going to walk all the way there. I don't want to walk for hours."

"Then what, we're going to fly there or something?"

"Maybe we are." Suddenly, a hovering semi-truck appeared with a rather short driver inside of it appeared.

"It's about time Sheldon."

"Wait, Sheldon works with you?"

"Uh yeah, I guess."

"No way. A living breathing _Homo Sapiens..._ in my presence! It is an honor to finally meet one!" The short horseshoe crab humanoid ran towards Clay to examine him"

"Careful not to kill Clay, Sheldon."

"Don't worry about me Marie."

"You should tell that to Clay."

"So Clay is it? Would you mind if I ask you a few questions during the trip."

"Just as long as they aren't very personal."

"Great. Well, let's get going!" They all got into the semi-truck, having the semitrailer transformed into a luxurious passenger room, and were on there way."

"Now, question 1 of 312..."

"Oh dear god."

 _ **Back at the Institution**_

"So Callie, I heard about what you and Clay did."

"THAT WAS AN ACCIDENT!"

"Suure it was. Humans are warm, but I think you were getting hot."

"SHUT UP!"

"Well accident or not, would you do it again? Don't worry, your answer will be a secret."

"Well...I didn't say it was bad. Maybe I'll do a bit more next time."

"Like what?"

"Know what human tastes like..."

"Geez Callie, I didn't know you were this naughty."

"Who represented team naughty again?"

"Fair."

 **Author's Note: Here is a subtle hint about you know who (trying not to spoil) in here. There's another in Ch 14.**


	16. Chapter 14: Investigations

_A slight noise is heard from deep below. A somewhat musical sound..._

"We're here!" Said Sheldon. The semi-truck slowed to a halt and landed on the sandy shore, overseeing the ocean. They began unloading computers, receivers, and other gadgetry. They finished setting up the "base" after 1 hour.

"Alright, now to go find out what this thing is up to. Elena, can you go back to the second channel and try to hear the people talking."

"No problem." _Mentally : "Charles would be better in this..."_

"Also, try to see if you can actually communicate with them. They might know more about Tartar than we do."

"Hey Sheldon, go help them out by trying to improve their signal range/quality, while I watch out for any trouble that might be coming this way." Said Marie.

"On it Marie!" Sheldon ran to the semi to grab some other equipment.

 _ **A few minutes later...**_

"Hold on. Hey guys, I found something, and it doesn't look good." Clay yelled. The rest scrambled to Clay's computer screen.

"What did you find Clay?" Asked Marie.

"The readings indicate high energy levels in a concentrated area underwater. It appears to be 2-5 miles offshore. The strangest thing is that the energy readings make up an unnatural shape."

"What shape does it make up?"

"While it doesn't show me exactly what the shape is, it looks kind of like a bullet. A really massive bullet, a few hundred feet large."

"Would that be where the troopers might be coming from?"

"Possibly, but then why would- WHOA,!"

"What is it?"

"I just got a _very familiar_ energy reading from there. The energy reading is nearly identical to the one released by our "safely disposed of" Genetic Amplifier."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that Tartar, or whatever is down there, has access to advanced genetic manipulation. And either they haven't stabilized the Genetic Amplifier, making it extremely deadly, or they have stabilized it, making it capable of being weaponized. But that means..."

"It means what?"

"One of the Professor's ideas was to run a large scale genetic experiment on a city. He would use a building sized machine capable of launching millions of gallons of Genetic Amplifier goop on a city to study its effects on individuals. This was "necessary" as he calculated that around 98.5% of the test subjects would face a gruesome death, so doing it on a city would "give more accurate results" than on a select few. He even said that there were already completed blueprints of the machine!

"Not to interrupt or anything, but I am hearing some very familiar voices in this channel." Elena said.

"What do you hear?" 

"Here Marie, I'll show you." Elena began to plug in external speakers and turned them on."

 _Small bits of music are heard, with Pearl and Marina singing them..._

"Is that...Off the Hook?" Marie asked

"Yeah, sounds just like them."

"What's Off the Hook? Is that like a gang or something?" Clay asked.

"Off the Hook is the newest musical sensation, no offense Marie, made by Pearl and Marina." Sheldon explained.

"Thanks for the input Sheldon."

"No problem Marie."

"I also heard a voice say "commence phase 6 of 7", but thought of it as interference from somewhere else. I wonder if phase se-"

 _Commence phase 7 of 7_

"What's phase 7?"

"All I know is that this is the last phase of whatever is going on."

 _The song playing gets interrupted be Pearl and Marina speaking_

"They're speaking, but I can't understand them very well. All I understood was "helicopter", everything else was inaudible."

 _Another song begins to play_

"Another song is playing, but I don't think it's Off the Hook singing it." Suddenly, Clay receives a transmission, not from underwater, but from the Institution.

"Who is this?" Clay asked.

 _Muffled sound and static_

"I can't hear anything, try clearing up the line."

 _More static_

 _ **The Institution, a few minutes earlier...**_

"I really wonder what's happening with the mission." Callie told Heather.

"They're probably doing just fine. And besides, there's nothin' that we can do."

"Hope Clay's alright. I should've gone with him"

"You're really concerned for Clay, aren't you? So you actually like him?"

"I-I didn't say I actually like him."

"Oh really? What about when you said that you wanted to know what "human tasted like"? Does that not count?"

"I was j-just joking. Do you really think I was serious?" _Mentally: "Just stop asking already."_

"Riiiiight then. It's not like-"

 **P.A. System: ALL GUARDS REPORT TO THE SURFACE IMMEDIATELLY. ALL OTHERS TAKE SHELTER NOW!**

"Wait, what's going on?" They then see Edward running towards them.

"Hey Ed, what's going on?"

"Callie, get you and your friend into Clay's room and stay there. I think the troopers are back again, just this time they are armed with weapons deadly to both of u-"

 _A loud jet engine noise is heard, getting louder and louder_

"Oh shit, MISSILE!" Edward lunges towards Callie and Heather, knocking them under a table.

 **BOOM!** Tiles from the roof begin to collapse, along with some metal beams. The lights begin to flicker on and off.

"Callie, Heather, are y'all alright?!" Edward yells.

"H-Heather and I are fine. W-What w-was that?"

"They must've launched a missile, but why are the lights flickering? Shit, it must've created strong electromagnetic pulses. This place can only hold on for so long, I have to alert Clay. Stay here and stay safe." Edward dashes into the communications room and tries to communicate with Clay.

"Clay, can you hear me?"

"Who is this?"

"Clay it's me, Edward. We're under attack."

"I can't hear anything, try clearing up the line."

 _ **Communication offli-i-i-**_

"Son of a bitch!" All the lights and machines shut off, leaving the Institution in darkness.

"I have to restore power. I hope they don't get attacked." A loud metallic crash is heard, followed by multiple heavy mechanical footsteps.

"Shit, they're inside."

 **Back with Clay...**

"What was it Clay?" Marie asked.

"I don't know, I couldn't understand the transmission. Let me try to call back."

 _ **Communication unavailable with this source.**_

"That's not good." Clay says.

"Hey, are those helicopters?" Elena asks Marie.

"Yeah, but why are Off the Hook's songs playing?" Marie asks.

"Hey guys, the energy readings are going nuts!" Clay says. "They're coming from the same area, only thing is...oh no..."

 **Author's Note: The last hint has been placed. Sorry if you wanted more hints, I tried to not change the story much/make it pretty obvious of what was going on. Hopefully this helps.**

 **P.S: First hint has been added to Ch 13 if you didn't notice (before middle).**


	17. Chapter 15: Day in Hell Part 1

_**The Institution:**_

Edward grasps his rifle, waiting for a trooper approaching the Communication Room. The trooper, in glossy maroon armor, enters the room and loads its dual machine guns.

 _Mentally "Gotcha you son of a bitch."_ Edward comes out from behind some tall boxes and fires at its chest, sending sparks flying. The trooper crashes down.

 _Multiple metallic footsteps start getting closer and closer_

"They are too many for me to shoot. Oh, almost forgot." Edward reaches down to his waist, pulling out a compact grenade.

"This shit better not kill me." Edward presses a button and throws it out the door to the hallway, seconds later, the grenade detonates.

"Hell yeah, I'm still alive." Suddenly, part of the hallway collapses, blocking most of the corridor that leads to the Assembly Room."

"Fuck. Wait, I forgot about Callie and Heather!" Edward runs outside and sees a small hole in the wall of debris.

"AAAHH!" A man's scream is silenced by rapid machine gun fire, painting the already dirty floors red.

" **CRUNCH** " Edward steps on a thin piece of tile, alerting the trooper.

 _Machine gun loading_

"FUUU-" Edward ducks as the trooper unloads at the wall of debris, tearing right through it as if it were paper. Edward crawls to the opening and sticks his rifle through it.

"Eat this." **CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK!** The trooper topples down after receiving multiple headshots. Edward hides in the Communication Room, expecting more troopers to come, but none did. Noticing this, Edward, as silently as possible, removed the now weak wall of debris. He is soon able to get through.

 _Whispering:_ "Where are the rest of the troopers? I swear I heard dozens of them. Or did my grenade get all of them?" He then finds the remaining troopers, all in a pile in the corner of the Assembly Room. Oddly enough, the troopers are physically intact.

"How the hell did they all die without a single bullet hole in them?"

"Because of me." Lela says to Edward, making him jump.

"Holy shit Lela, don't scare me like that, especially now! I would've shot you if it wasn't for your voice."

"Sorry 'bout that. Anyways, I was able to grab an EMP grenade from the Engineering Room."

"Wait, since when did we have EMP grenades?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, Ed. We should probably go look for Callie and Heather, if they're not dead already."

"Don't say that Lela, even if that's true." They both walk over to Clay's bedroom and turn the doorknob, which was locked. Slightly worried, they knock on the door, all while firmly grasping their rifles.

 _Knock, Knock, Knock_

"Callie, Heather, it's just Ed and I. Can you open the door?" A few seconds of silence pass until the sound of locks unlocking are heard. With the door wide open, Callie and Heather are seen, both wielding 9mm handguns.

"Ed, Lela!" Callie says and runs up to hug them.

"Hey Heather, where did you get the guns?" Edward asked.

"Callie told me that Clay showed her where the guns were hidden." Heather responded.

"Well now that we're all here, let's go to the Electrical Room and try to re-establish power in the building." They all proceed to walk to the Electrical Room, where they see multiple human bodies in pools of blood, many of which have been dismembered. They finally reach the Electrical Room, at the end of the hallway, where a trooper is seen with bullet holes in its head and a final human body, missing his left side of his brain.

"Holy fucking shit, these things are brutal." Lela commented.

"S-So, you don't have a respawn pad for humans, right?" Callie asked, now quivering at the sight of the human corpses.

"No, why would we? We can never respawn. Never have, never will." Edward answered. Edward goes into the room and re-establishes electricity after half an hour.

"Now quickly Lela, go to the Communication Room and tell Clay about the attack. If they attacked us here, they will most likely be able to locate them and attack them too."

"On it!" Lela sprinted to the Communication Room and began to communicate with Clay.

"Clay, we've been attacked by the troopers, and there were heavy human casualties. They might go after y'all. Clay, do you hear me!?"

 _ **Communication is unavailable at this time**_

"What? How? What's happening to them?"

 **Back with Clay, over half an hour ago...**

"What do you mean with oh no?" Marie asks, with fear coming out of her words.

"T-There is a large percentage of the energy being concentrated onto a spot near the head. If I'm correct, this might be a type of weapon."

"Do you really think a 12,000 year old machine would survive underwater?"

"It might not be 12,000 years old. It could've been built underwater a few years back. If we had the technology to build underwater bases12,000vago, there's no telling what an A.I. could do."

"But if-yo, why is Pearl rapping with gramps-I-I mean Captain Cuttlefish?" Marie asked.

"Is Pearl the short pipsqueak?" Clay asked.

"Yeah, I guess you can say that. Hey, w-what's coming out of the water!" From the depths of the ocean, a large structure emerges, resembling the Greek god Hermes. Out from its mouth, a large cannon-like object appears, containing a green goo-like liquid.

"Hey, that looks like my sister, Sally!" Jane burst out.

"Jane, where the hell were you?" Clay asked.

"I fell asleep in the semi."

"Wha-why did you- n-never mind. And wait, did you say sister?"

"Yes, I have a sister. I thought I would never see her again. We need to help her."

"Don't worry, I've got it!" Clay began typing away, trying to quickly hack into its system. After a few seconds, he managed to break in.

 _Mentally "Looks like there's two people also trying to hack Tartar. One of them is in the helicopter, the other is further back, near Inkopolis. The one near Inkopolis already knows about my plans...somehow."_ Clay thought. Clay's screen shows a message saying: **I can help you, trust me. Hell, you even know me** , which makes Clay shudder slightly. Another message pops up by that same hacker, bringing momentary relief to Clay. Clay types with more speed for a bit.

"And it appears Tartar is running it! Alright, so I need a distraction to keep Tartar occupied. Luckily someone from the helicopters was also trying to break in, so I sent out fake data to make them think that covering it all up with ink will help.

"Why don't you directly tell them what to do instead of tricking them?" Marie asked.

"I've done this to many people when I was backing before..all of this. Every time I actually told them what to do, they went a different direction and screwed the plan over. You might be right, but this is the way it has worked for me."

"This sounds like a gamble to me." Marie said.

"It might as well be."

"Also, if inking the surface won't do anything, why would Tartar even care about it?"

"Someone else already took care of it."

"What? Who?"

"An anonymous person near Inkopolis who also wants to help. They said that they know a lot about how ink works and its composition. That way, they can use semi-realistic data from a dangerous ink-like substance. This will give Tartar an incentive to try and stop the people on the helicopter, thinking it's that dangerous substance, instead of regular ink."

"You just said that this never worked for you." Marie said.

"It never worked when _I_ told them. It's perfectly fine when they tell me, as they normally stay on track."

Clay types again with even more speed and force than before, almost breaking the key pads.

"Here's the plan, they keep Tartar occupied, while I hack into its generator to produce far lower energy levels, making the weapon fire with weaker strength and range, all while making the information received by Tartar as if everything was going according to plan."

"And how long will it take?" Marie asked.

"About 3 minutes."

"Hey, Sally is going to the statue! She won't get hurt, right?" Jane asked for concern over her sister.

"Just as long as she doesn't fall into the water."

 _Two minutes later..._

"Hey guys, I'm almost done with-" A message appeared on Clay's computer screen that said the following.

 _ **YOU FOOL, I HAVE UNLEASHED H.E.L.L. ON YOUR PEOPLE ONCE, AND I SHALL DO IT ONCE MORE!**_

"Wait, H.E.L.L.? OH FUCK! Elena, I need you to continue this on your computer!"

"Wait what, but I can't-"

"JUST DO IT! I HAVE TO STOP THIS VIRUS, BECAUSE IF WE DON'T, LIFE AS YOU KNOW IT WILL CEASE TO EXIST. IT HAPPENED TO US, IT WILL MOST CERTAINLY HAPPEN TO YOU ASWELL!" Clay yelled at the top of his lungs. Everyone just stood in shock, and Elena began to do as Clay said. Suddenly, a voice shouted on Clay's computer speakers.

 _ **DID YOU REALLY THINK THAT I WOUDN'T KNOW WHAT YOU WERE GOING TO DO?! HAHAHA! GOOD LUCK ON DOING IT WITHOUT YOUR COMPUTER!**_

"Good thing I backed it up on this drive!" Clay responded. He then grabbed a small device from the semi-truck and plugged in the drive. The device lit up in green and an antenna soon popped out of it.

"And before I forget..." Clay grabbed a nearby rock and smashed apart the computer that Tartar had access too. "Elena, turn yours off too." Elena immediately stopped all processes on her computer and turned it off.

"What's in the drive?" Marie asked, clearly confused.

"This drive contains the needed anti-virus, which I created beforehand, to stop the virus. All I had to do is to make Tartar believe that I was doing something to waste his time. Also, it will look weird for Off the Hook and Sally to suddenly find the machine power off by itself."

"Hey, the cannon is still going to fire!" Marie yelled.

"Of course it is, and I've got that covered, or at least the pipsqueak does." Pearl is later seen counteracting and destroying the statue and Tartar with her killer wail. A few seconds of silence pass until Marie begins to talk.

"W-We did it...WE DID IT!" Marie yelled in celebration.

"Yeah, we did it." Clay said. _In Clay's mind: "Sure, "we" did it, it's not like I did nearly all of it. Well didn't really, I got help from that other hacker. I wonder who they are."_

One helicopter begins to close in on them carrying four people.

"Hey, I think they're coming over." Clay said.

 _In the distance, a swarm of helicopters and ships close in on the beach, stealthily..._

 **Author's Note: If you're a new reader, don't mind this A/N much (and thx for reading!)**

 **An edit has been made after 980 words (around the middle of the story), explaining (hopefully) why Tartar should care about the ink(trying to make this A/N not spoil anything else). The second issue has/will be addressed very soon. Thank you for telling me about the plot holes there were and sorry for having them. If you have any concerns/questions/comments, feel free to tell me.**


	18. Chapter 16: Day in Hell Part 2

**This is the last chapter with the big spoilers. Just very small spoilers, which probably have already been mentioned, might be told.**

 **Continuing after last chapter...**

The helicopter descended and landed to the right of them. Out of the helicopter appeared Pearl (O.E. clothes), Marina (O.E. clothes), Captain Cuttlefish, Agent 3 and Sally (Agent 8). Sally curiously looks at Jane, and runs towards her when she finally recognized who she was.

"Sis!" Sally said. They both hugged and cried at the sight of each other.

 _With tears running down_ "I-I thought that I w-would never see y-you again!" Jane responded.

"Hey grandpa-I mean Captain." Marie said, soon seeing Agent 3. "Is that Agent 3?"

"Yep, the whippersnapper is still a bit hurt, but she'll recover." Cuttlefish responded. "How are things over here?"

"Well, we just saw a giant statue get blown up..., so pretty normal."

"Hey Marie, who's that guy there?" Agent 3 asked, pointing at Clay.

"Well, do I have a surprise for you." Marie said. "His name is Clay and he's a human."

"Woawoawoa! Hold up. Did I just hear human?!" Pearl exclaimed. "Didn't we just fight a machine built by humans? Why the hell is he here?!"

"Hey, shut it pipsqueak, if it wasn't for me, your squid ass would be covered in goo." Everyone just stared at Clay over his response. "T-That's not what I meant. Let me rephrase it, I stopped the machine from powering up enough to wipe you out AND stopped a computer virus that would've wiped you all out."

"Hellooo! Marina did all of that, not you."

"Actually, I sent all of the information she received in order to distract Tartar while I actually did the rest."

"And what about me blowing the hell out of the statue?!"

"Let's make it easier for you to understand: Who told you to do that?"

"Marina."

"And who sent ALL of the information that Marina received? Oh wait, ...THAT... WAS... ME!" Clay and Pearl got closer towards each other, which got Marina to step in between them.

"Hey, how about we stop arguing about this? We both did something to stop Tartar. If it wasn't for both us and Clay, we might not be here. So what do you say?"

"What the hell"/"Sure, whatever" Pearl and Clay said at the same time.

"And besides," Marina added. "we should be celebrating, seeing as Tartar has been defeated!"

"Marina, you're right." Marie stated. "Clay, you should get to know them better," Marie then looks at Pearl and Marina. "and the same goes to y'all" Clay then glances over at the ocean, noticing a horde of ships, followed by distant helicopters heading towards them.

Clay looks at Pearl "Are those ships and helicopters yours by any chance?"

"Our helicopters already left and I don't have small ships, only cruisers." Pearl responded. As the ships got closer, some began to open a hatch from the underside, releasing round objects. Clay then knew what they were as one of the objects revealed a Gatling gun.

"TROOPERS!" Clay yelled as he fired at the incoming troopers with his rifle. Many troopers got destroyed, but many more were coming onshore, getting ready to fire.

"EVERYONE, GET BACK!" Marie yelled. Both Sally and Agent 3 fired at them with their splatter/octoshot, but to no avail. Clay kept on firing, until he remembered about something. Clay then looked at Marie.

"Marie, take my gun and keep firing at them. I know what can stop them."

"W-What? I don't know how to use human weapons!"

"They're the exact same as your weapons, just with a hell of a lot more recoil. I just reloaded it, so don't worry about it." Marie did as instructed and fired the gun, nearly being knocked back. One of the troopers got close enough and fired at Clay, but missed. That trooper was immediately shot by Marie in the head. Clay reached the semi-truck and began searching for something. After a few seconds, he pulled out a large speaker-looking object. Clay then pressed a button near a wave icon, and turned a knob on the back of the device, where it began ticking.

"TAKE COVER EVERYONE!" Clay then threw the device near the ocean, where it emitted a high pitched noise. All the troopers began spazzing out then falling to the ground. In the distance, the rotors of the slow moving helicopters stopped spinning, causing the helicopters to crash into the ocean.

"Is everyone alright?!" Clay yelled. He noticed that they all looked a bit disoriented. "What's wrong?"

"N-Nothing, just a bit dizzy." Marina responded. "What was that thing anyways?"

"This was a focusing EMP grenade. I knew that some sort of amphibious attack was going to happen, so I set the grenade to send most of the EMP's to the nearest body of water it detected. I still don't know how this type of grenade was even possible, but it looks like it worked." Clay looked out into the ocean. "Heck, it even managed to get the helicopters in the distance."

Marina, looking a bit dizzy, looked at Clay. "T-That's why we feel dizzy. O-One of our sensory organs is very s-sensitive to these type of pulses. I think that the grenade affected the organ, causing us to feel a bit dizzy in the process."

"Oops, didn't know that. Perhaps I should dissect one of you guys to know more about your organs."

"Just as long as we do the same to you." Pearl responded.

"Touché" Clay responded.

"What?" Pearl said. "Is that some other language?"

"Shit, I forgot that the translator was set to translate my English to Oceanic. I don't think it works with French."

"You developed a translator?" Marina asked

"I didn't, the people at the Institution did."

"There's more of you?!"

"I'm impressed Marina, you always told me how awesome it would be to meet them, and here we are." Pearl added.

"Speaking of which, I should see If I can communicate with them." Clay goes to the semi-truck where he takes out a tablet, protected by an anti-EMP case. He takes about half an hour until he sets up communication. Finally, he presses a button on his earpiece. "Hey, Clay here, why couldn't I talk to you earlier?" There was silence.

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

 **The Institution some minutes before...**

"What's going on?" Edward asked Lela.

"Yeah, what's happening?" Callie asked.

"There's a problem with communicating with Clay, only this time it's on Clay's side." Lela explained.

"Hold on." Edward said. He reached onto the keyboard and started typing. After a few minutes, Clay's voice was heard over the speaker."

" _Hello? Is anyone there?"_

"Clay! It's me Edward, what was going on there? We were unable to communicate with you."

"If I told you, you wouldn't believe it."

"Almost forgot, we were just under attack by troopers."

"WHAT! Were they all stopped?"

"They managed to get in and kill many people, but we managed to fend them off."

"Just how many were killed?"

"We haven't tallied up the numbers, but there might be over 50 dead. Also, be cautious, as they might attack you at any moment."

"That already happened."

"WAIT REALLY?!" Please tell me there were no casualties."

"There were none."

"Oh thank god."

"Speaking of which, are Callie, Heather, and Lela alright?"

"Yeah they're all fine. And so am I, thanks for asking."

"No one cares about you. Just kidding dude. By the way, we tried to contact you a while back and couldn't communicate with you, why was that?"

"The troopers somehow managed to shut off all power. Speaking of troopers, did you see them? They had fucking machine guns now!"

"They are starting to realize that their weapons don't do shit to us, so they're using actual guns now."

"WHERE'S MARIE, IS SHE OKAY?!" Callie yelled at Clay.

"Holy shit Callie, tone it down a bit. You nearly made me deaf."

"Sorry. Is Marie okay?"

"No, she got turned into Swiss cheese."

"WHAT?!"

"Of course she's okay! I just said that there were no casualties, and I know you heard as the computer you're using has loud-ass speakers!"

"And I thought I was an asshole." Marie said.

"Nah, that's what Heather is."

"I HEARD THAT!" Heather said through Clay's communicator. "Anyways, we're on pour way back, along with 5 guests."

"Ooh, hostages?" Edward asked.

"What, no. I mean actual guests, not hostages."

"What! Now we have to go where there are more humans! Hell no!" Pearl whined.

"Pearl be nice. The humans did help us stop Tartar, and our inviting us to their home." Marina said.

"Fine, but only because you told me to." Pearl responded.

Sheldon gathers everyone in the Semi-truck, which was undamaged by the EMP, in order to depart. Sheldon drives for about half an hour until Sheldon stops the semi-truck for a multiple large, metallic objects on the side of the road, slightly covered up by the tall grass.

"What's the hold up Sheldon?" Marie asked.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but are those troopers?" Sheldon asked.

"Where?" Clay asks.

"On the side of the road to the left."

"Let me go check it out." Clay steps out of the semi-truck and calls Lela on his earpiece."

"Hey Clay, what do you need."

"I think we're going to be a bit late. There's some investigating we have to do."

"Okay, just call us if you need any help."

"No problem."

Back in the dimly lit Assembly Room in the Institution, Callie is seen walking with Edward, and talking about the number of carcasses and how they're going to accommodate the five extra people in the now vacant rooms. Behind them, a dark figure is seen silently approaching them, holding what looks to be like a handgun. The figure then proceeds to aim the gun at the back of Callie's head.


	19. Chapter 17: Revelations

**The Institution, right where we left off**

A clicking sound is heard, which makes Edward look back.

"What the-!" Edward notices the gun and manages to twist the arm of the person holding the gun and pushes them to the floor. A gunshot is heard but it hits a random wall. Edward then takes a look at who was holding the gun.

"K-Kari? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Edward yells.

"IT'S ALL THEIR DOING! THEY WERE THE REASON FOR THE ATTACK! EVER SINCE THEY CAME HERE, WE HAVE BEEN UNDER CONSTANT ATTACK! THEY ARE A MEANACE!"

"Calm the hell down Kari. That's not true. We have been attacked before any of them came inside."

"THEY DON'T NEED TO COME INSIDE TO KNOW HOW TO KILL US!" Kari pulls out something from her waist and charges at Callie. Callie evades by turning into a squid, making Kari go for Edward instead. Edward notices this and tries to dodge it but gets stabbed in his left shoulder instead. Kari goes for Edward again but she gets kicked in the stomach by Edward. She throws the knife at Edward, slashing his left arm. Kari grabs her gun off the floor and fires at Callie but misses. She fires twice and hits Callie's right leg and left arm.

"AAAH!" Callie yells in pain. Kari gets ready to shoot Callie again, but she gets kicked in the face by Heather, who came over when she heard the screaming.

"Fucking squid!" Kari says while firing at Heather's stomach, making her fall to the ground while ink runs out of her body. Three guards rush out from the main entrance and witness the injured Inklings and humans, with Kari holding the gun.

"PUT YOUR HANDS UP KARI!" Says guard fires at him as reaction, hitting him near his left kidney. The other two guards fire at Kari's arms and legs, immobilizing her.

"AAAH, YOU PIECES OF SHIT!" Kari screams in pain.

"Get the paramedics here!" Guard 3 tells to Guard 2.

"On it!" Guard 2 says while rushing to get paramedics.

 _A few moments later..._

"Lela, there's been many humans and Inklings that have been injured by Kari. We need the paramedics in the Assembly Room." Guard 2 tells Lela.

"On my way. I'll need to call Clay, alerting him of what has happened."

 **Back with Clay...**

"Why the hell are these troopers here? Did the EMP knock out a surprise attack?" Clay asks himself. Clay notices a weird ink-like substance at the back of the trooper's head. Clay touches it with his fingers.

"What is this stuff? This doesn't look like ordinary Inkling or Octoling ink." A rustling sound is heard in the tall grass.

"Who's there?!" Clay says while holding his rifle.

"Don't shoot!" Says the unknown person.

"Stand up, slowly."

"O-Okay, j-just don't shoot." The figure rises up, revealing it to be Dustin.

"God dammit Dustin, what are you doing here? This is a pretty dangerous place." Clay says.

"More that it was half an hour ago?"

"W-What do you mean by that?" Clay asks.

"Well, it all began..."

 _Flashback..._

"Hey Charles, how come we weren't invited to come to the Insta-whatchamacallit? Dustin asked.

"Maybe because Heather and Elena were more talented than us or something." Charles responded.

"What if only girls could come?"

"In that case, why didn't four go?"

"Four? Who's that?" Dustin asked.

"You know". _Whispering: "Agent 4."_

"Ooh, her. Yeah, that makes sense. So, does that mean that we're useless?"

"To this mission, yes. Overall, no."

"Wait, how are you useless, you're a hacker?"

"Firstly, I never told them that."

"Why?"

"Because having a hacker in their only home would make them feel in danger. Secondly, I am still a bit injured from the fall I got when Clay threw me up in the air."

"Oh yeah, that was hilarious."

"I'm glad. I'll make sure Clay knows you enjoyed it so he does it to you."

" _Ha-ha,_ very funny. Hey Charles, doesn't it feel weird that you taught Elena, the know-it-all, how to hack?"

"Yea-wait, how'd you know?"

"Elena told me. Is that bad?"

"I don't really want people to know me as a hacker, as my personality would make me look like I'm doing really bad stuff with it." ~ ~ ~

"Hey Dustin, mind skipping to the part where you started knocking these troopers out?" Clay tells Dustin, interrupting his flashback."

"Yeah, sure Clay. Let me see..."

 _Flashback again..._

Charles and Dustin are seen walking around the grassy fields, armed with strange weaponry. Charles, along with the weapons, is carrying a laptop.

"Hey Charles, might telling me what's going on and what we're doing?" Dustin asked.

"So two days back, when you were going to buy drinks, I was on my laptop just messing around. I then noticed a few strange transmissions arriving from the ocean. As usual, I began investigating it, eventually being able to gain access of many "classified" files. Long story short, there was a planned invasion of Inkopolis, and they would go through these grassy plains. There was also information of the inner workings of the trooper, which allowed me to recreate a specialized ink that corrodes only their exterior hull, allowing me to damage their sensitive circuitry."

"Why not corrode everything?" Dustin asked.

"I would've done that, but it would've been difficult to store that in ink tanks."

"Also, how the hell were you able to manufacture this?"

"Let's just say I have "access" to the largest/most advanced weapons manufacturer in Inkopolis."

 _End flashback..._

"And after that, we started noticing the troopers coming in and began to shoot them. We actually killed them by shooting our normal ink into their sensitive circuitry." Dustin said, finishing the flashback.

"Okay, that makes sense."

"Oh, there was another important part I forgot to tell you. After we were done, Charles hacked into your computer, gained access to your plan, and noticed three flaws in them..."

 _Flashback once more..._

"Damn, for a human who survived extinction, his plan is pretty shit." Charles told Dustin.

"What's wrong with it? It looks like it's working just fine." Dustin replied.

"Because I already fixed them. Primarily, his transmissions give away his physical location, which troopers can locate. I managed to stop this by broadening the area of transmission, making it harder to pinpoint exactly where they are."

"Okay, keep going."

"Secondly, their "distraction" won't work. Clay sent out false information to Marina, making them think that inking the surface will work. The thing is that Tartar-"

"Wait Marina? And who's Tartar?" Dustin interrupted.

"The thing behind all of this is Tartar. Marina is the other one hacking."

"Oh, that makes sense. And Clay knows Marina?"

"Not personally, but he knows that she has computer skills and is the one in the helicopter. Anyways, Tartar will only find inking the surface as weird, since it actually does nothing to stop him. So what I did is mess up his chemical makeup scan of the ink, making the ink look like an organic energy absorbent compound that will absorb and stop the statue's energy if it's all coated in it. "

"What? That's too much science for me."

"Look, Clay could've made it easier by just making Marina hack Tartar directly to buy him more time. This would stop me from having to fix his mess of a plan."

'What about the third flaw?"

"The third flaw in his plan is that he miscalculated the energy reduction of the statue. He actually only took 96.81% of the energy, instead of 98.61%. So, I had to take away the 1.8% to prevent Marina and Pearl from being blown off of the face of the Earth."

"PEARL'S THERE TOO?!"

"YES! Now stop screaming."

 _End Flashback..._

"That was a long explanation. And just where is Charles anyways?" Clay asks Dustin.

"He told me that he was going to get something important. I don't know what that something is." Dustin replies. Clay's earpiece begins to vibrate as a call is received,

"Hold on Dustin, someone from the Institution is calling me." Clay presses a button in his earpiece, answering the call. "Hello?"

"Clay it's me Lela. We just had a major situation."

"What happened?"

"Kari went haywire and injured a guard, Edward, Callie, and heavily injured Heather."

"WHAT?! What's their current condition?"

"Edward and Callie both received bullet wounds, with Edward also receiving cuts. They're expected to recover. The other guard had part of his intestine pierced. Kari received multiple bullet wounds and trauma all over her body."

"What about Heather?"

"She received a bullet wound through her stomach. Right now she's in ICU, but there's not much that w e can do."

"I'll be on my way. Maybe the Biology Department and I can help Heather." Clay presses another button on his earpiece, ending the call.

"Hey Clay, what's the holdup?" Sheldon asked, still in the semi-truck.

"We have to go to the Institution stat." Clay faces Dustin. "You and Charles go home for now. I'll call you when necessary."

"How are you going to call?"

"With Heather's phone, although she might not need it anymore."

"Why? Is she in trouble?"

"She received multiple bullet wounds and is in critical condition."

"Shit. Then Charles needs to go see her. He's really attached to her."

"He can come to the Institution when he can. Just tell the guards that I gave you permission to come." Clay enters the semi-truck as Sheldon turns the semi-truck on.

"Hey Clay, what's going on?" Marie quietly asks.

"Kari injured many in the Institution, including Calli-"

"SHELDON, STEP ON THE GAS NOW!" Marie yelled at Sheldon.

" _I knew humans were bad news."_ Pearl whispers to Marina.

" _Pearl, now's not the time to say that."_ Marina whispered back. The semi-truck speeds off, leaving Dustin behind, who walks back home. Dustin then finds Charles two minutes later.

"Hey Dustin, what's good." Charles says.

"I just came from talking with Clay. Apparently someone went crazy and injured Heather. She's now in critical condition."

"It was only a matter of time before something like that happened. Let's head back home and we'll go see Heather." Charles said.

"Do you have a car or something?"

"Yeah."

"Then why did we walk all the way here?"

"To be stealthy, and save money." Charles and Dustin began speed walking back home.


	20. Chapter 18: Institutional Issues

**Outside the Institution**

The semi-truck is seen stopping right in front of the hatch. The guards move their rifles into a firing position, but stop when they realize who's in it. The doors open, allowing Marie and Clay to sprint down to the entrance, leaving behind the rest.

"Come on y'all, this is urgent." Clay says to everyone else behind him.

"We'll be there in a sec!" Responds Marina. Marina looks at Pearl. "So, this is their lair?"

"I guess so, although this is not what I expected to be their home." Pearl says.

"They did have to survive their extinction, so luxury wasn't in their priority list."

'You got a point there Marina."

Clay and Marie are now in the Assembly Room, looking around for the injured.

"Where are they?" Asked Marie. "They were supposed to be here, right?"

"Of course!" Clay facepalms himself. "They are in the medical room!" Clay leads Marie to the Medical Room, deep in the hall where the bedrooms are. They both enter, noticing Lela near one of the doors.

"Lela, where's everyone else?" Clay asked.

"Let me see..." Lela shuffles through her folder. "Edward is in room A11, and Heather is in the ICU."

"What about Callie?" Marie asked.

"Somehow she's fine now. She's in the Recovery Room"

"What? Didn't she receive two bullet wounds?" Asked Clay.

"Yes, but she healed those bullet wounds nearly completely, even though the bullet went right through her leg and arm." Lela responded.

"Us Inklings do have a good healing system. Don't you humans have one?" Marie said.

"We do have one, just a very slow one." Clay responded.

"Heather, being a worse case, is in ICU. She has healed most of it, but is still in critical condition and must be monitored." Lela said.

"Not to be rude but I'm going to go see my cousin." Marie said.

"So am I." Clay said. "J-Just to make sure she's alright."

"Mhmh, sure." Marie said. They both ran to the Recovery Room at their right. They both are in a large, white room with many human nurses. In the room is Callie, with a lollipop in her mouth.

"M-These arr pr~tty gmd!" Callie said with the lollipop still in her mouth.

"CALLIE!" Marie yells while jumping at Callie. Marie hugs her tightly.

"M-Marie, y-you're s-strang-gling m-me." Callie says.

"Oh, sorry." Callie catches her breath for a moment.

"You got me worried for a sec there Callie. Great to see that you're okay!" Clay says.

"O-Oh, t-thanks." Callie responds, with a very noticeable blush on her face. "What about Heather, is she alright?"

"We don't know yet Callie. You want to come with us to see her?" Marie asked.

"Y-Yeah let's go." Callie struggled a bit to get up, but received help from Clay.

"Just grab onto me if you feel like falling." Clay stated.

"O-Okay." Callie responded, still blushing.

 **Back with the rest...**

"Can't believe that guard doesn't know about us." Pearl ranted to Marina. "How uncultured!"

"Pearl, how can they know about us if they barely know about our species at all." Marina responded.

"Well then, how'd they find out about us then?!"

"They just went outside and USED THEIR EYES."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"I don't know, what is it supposed to mean?"

"Can y'all stop acting like little kids." Sally said.

"And coming from her, that's pretty embarrassing for y'all." Jane added on.

"Why?" Pearl asked.

"I'm 14." Sally responded.

" _And she's taller than you, still."_ Marina whispered to Pearl. Pearl didn't respond to it and walked away.

"Hey, where are you going?" Jane asked, chuckling a bit while doing so.

"Somewhere else!" Pearl responded.

"Do you even know where you're going." Sally added. They all just stood back watching Pearl trying to navigate around. Pearl, feeling a bit awkward, approached a human passing by.

"Hey, do you know where Clay is, or any other Inkling?" Pearl asked. The guard didn't understand anything Pearl said. All the guard did was make a hand motion telling her to stay put. Pearl understood and smiled politely at the guard. The guard smiled back and began looking for Clay.

"Who said I didn't know where to go?! HAHA, proved y'all wrong!" Pearl arrogantly said.

"But you asked someone for help, and they did." Marina responded.

"They didn't understand me, so it doesn't count!"

"They went to look for someone WHO DID, so it does count."

"Who said they did? What if they went to eat lunch instead? Maybe they went to the restroom and won't return? Or maybe they went to see their other friends, _leaving me behind like everyone else did in school._..O-Or something like that." Jane and Sally looked awkwardly at each other, they looked back with the same facial expression at Pearl. Marina, on the other hand, showed a face of sympathy, with a few tears being visible right under her eyes. In the other side of the hallway, Edward leaves a room and approaches Pearl.

"Did someone need help?" Edward asked politely.

"Hell yeah we do." Pearl said. Marina, Jane, and Sally approached Edward as well.

"Pearl, be nice to him." Marina told Pearl, getting a huff from Pearl in response. "M-My name is Marina, this is Pearl."

"Waddup fam." Pearl said.

"A-And yours?"

"Name's Edward. Introductions aside, what do y'all need?"

"We were told by Clay to come over." Marina responded. Edward flinched a little at her response.

"What was he thinking? He shouldn't have brought you here. Don't you know about what happened?"

"We do, but Clay brought us here as we heard that Callie and another Inkling-"

"Her name is Heather." Jane told Marina.

"-H-Heather were injured."

"Well, I suppose I should bring you to them."

"Yes please."

"Follow me then." Edward led them through the Institution to the Medical Room. Pearl, Sally, and Marina, especially, were amazed of the inside of the institution. Marina kept looking around, looking at all the foreign technology and faces.

"Your technology is amazing." Marina complemented.

"It's okay, I guess. It's somewhat similar to yours."

"It's nothing like ours."

"If you would like to know more about it, you can go ask Clay. He's the nerd of the institution."

"You can say that again." Pearl commented. Marina lightly elbowed Pearl's head.

"I can see that you got off on the wrong foot with him."

"We met him right after the fighting was over." Marina added. "It's mostly Pearl that doesn't like him."

"It's because he's an asshole."

"PEARL!" Marina yelled.

"Calm down there Marina. Pearl is not wrong in the slightest."

"Do you hate him too?" Marina asked.

"He's my friend."

"You don't sound very friendly to him."

"Of course not. That's what friends do. I have a good feeling that you should know that as well."

"What are you, a psychic?" Pearl asked.

"I'm just good at reading people's personality, including Oceanics apparently."

"What's an Oceanic?" Pearl asked.

"It's what we call all marine descendants. It's not meant to offend, it's just easier to remember, to me at least." They all arrived at the entrance of the Medical Room. "Here we are." Clay, Callie, and Marie were sitting next to Heather, who laid unconscious in the bed. Heather had many cables hooked up to monitors to check her vital signs, with many bandages going across her stomach.

"Who did this to her?" Jane asked in horror.

"It was Kari. That fucking bastard." Clay responded. "Her and I are going to have a very long talk about this."

"Right now she's in house arrest, or more like room arrest. We will get a proper judge to give her a proper punishment."

"If it were up to me I would drown her." Pearl commented, shocking Marina enough to nearly make her fall over.

"PEARL! What kind of solution is that?" Marina said.

"I'd do the same, but we need her to give us her motive for doing so in order to prevent this from happening again. Then we could drown her afterwards." Clay said.

"Isn't that against the constitution since it's a cruel/unusual punishment?" Edward asked Clay.

"The United States is long gone. We don't abide by their rules anymore." Clay responded.

"But the Institution does, hence everyone will have to."

"Who's stupid idea was that? We could have something new and possibly better!"

"It was your idea. Many opposed it until you brought it up and managed to convince nearly everybody."

"Really? Damn, I have shitty memory then." Clay began to walk out of the room. "Constitution or no constitution, I'm going to deal with Kari." Clay said, leaving afterwards.

"That bitch is now dead." Pearl said.

"How much more cursing will you keep doing?" Marie asked.

"As long as needed." Pearl responded. "You ain't seen nothin' yet."

In the Assembly Room, Kari was brought out to the table where Clay was sitting. Kari was handcuffed, and had her mouth covered with a gray cloth. In the time between her outlast and now, she looked like she had been imprisoned for years. Kari's wounds were patched up quickly, even though she had received multiple gunshots and was hit many times. Still, she acted as relentlessly as a caged tiger.


	21. Chapter 19: New Findings

"Kari, please take a seat." Clay told Kari. She sat down on the chair and had her gray cloth removed.

"...You damn traitor." Kari said.

"Traitor? What makes you say tha-" Clay was interrupted by Kari quickly standing up.

"THIS WAS YOUR FUCKING FAULT!" Kari screamed. She tried to lunge at Clay, but two guards behind her held her down.

"What the hell is wrong with you? I did what you told me to do."

"You _used to_ do as I said, until you started going outside more often. I should've never let you out."

"I not only gathered intel for the Institution, but managed to stop its destruction the day it was attacked."

"You weren't in the Institution when we were under attack, so just where were you?"

"Outside stopping Tartar from killing us all, with help of course. Let's stop talking about me and talk about what you did." Clay began to slowly get up. "Why...the hell...did you...fucking attack the Oceanics and our own?"

"Our own? HAHAHA! Like you, they were trying to get us all killed! I did my best to stop them, but the damn guards stopped me from doing so."

"Even if you were right, you should've asked for justice, not try to do it yourself. What you did was disgusting."

 _Going insane_ "THERE'S NO JUSTICE HERE ANYMORE! EVER SINCE THOSE FUCKING OCEANICS CAME, WE WERE ALWAYS IN DANGER! THEY WANT TO BRING US DOWN, **INCLUDING YOU!** " Kari managed to lunge at Clay, even with both guards holding her down, and began to strangle him. Clay grabbed his ink pen and stabbed Kari's neck. Kari collapsed as blood began rushing down her neck into the floor. The guards picked her up and took her to the Medical Room _again_.

 **Medical Room**

"I sure hope Clay's alright." Callie said.

"I'm sure he'll be fine, and Callie, can I ask you something?" Marie said.

"You just did." Callie responded.

"Hey, I'm the one who does that, not you." Marie said.

"Someone's salty." Pearl commented.

"Coming from you." Marina added.

"Shut up Marina." Pearl responded.

"I'll ask anyways." Marie said. "Why do you care so much about Clay? I know that you're kind and all, but I've never seen you be _this_ kind. Is there something that we don't know about him?"

"It's because...h-he's smart, yeah that's why!" Callie said.

"There's Sheldon, why don't you care about him as much?"

"I don't like having a lecture about weapons every 5 seconds."

"Fair point."

"Clay's also a human, which I've never seen and I don't want him to get hurt."

"Well, as Captain always said-wait where's Cuttlefish?" Marie asked.

"The old man isn't here? I could've sworn that he was behind us." Pearl said.

 **Somewhere in the Institution...**

Captain Cuttlefish is in a dimly lit hallway. The walls contained bullet holes and scratches on them. Cuttlefish stands in front of a large metal door.

"Blasted long hallways! I'm getting tired of walkin' already! I'm just gonna rest in here for a bit." Cuttlefish pushes on the door and manages to open the door inwards. The inside of the room was also dimly lit, but a few details could be made. The inside was filled by what looked like three large bookshelves making a "c", with the gap facing the entrance. In the gap was a table with what appeared to be a plastic chair. Cuttlefish begins to feel around the wall, looking for a light switch.

"Darn light switch, where are ya?" Cuttlefish feels a small round knob. "Aha! Gotcha!" Cuttlefish begins spinning the knob, slowly lighting up the room. The room finally showed the three bookshelves, all half-filled with books made out of plastic covers. Both the table and chair were indeed made out of plastic, but had a light maroon finish to them.

"A library, huh. Let me see what kind of books these humans have." Cuttlefish approaches the bookshelf to the left and grabs a book from the bottom shelf.

"This looks interesting, just can't understand a thing that it says!" Cuttlefish looks at the cover, containing the image of George Washington in front of the Continental Army. "Wonder who this fella is. Looks to be like a general or something like that." Cuttlefish puts the book back and keeps on exploring. "Let's see."Cuttlefish grabs another book, having the Marine Corps War Memorial as the front cover. Cuttlefish puts it back and grabs another book, having a series of ww2 fighter aircraft and artillery as the cover.

"These humans sure have a thing for war stuff, no wonder they almost killed themselves." Cuttlefish skims through the pages, not knowing a single thing that it says. "I wonder how these books survived being here for thousands of years and still be in great conditions." Cuttlefish continues to skim through books until he finds another history book, this time containing pictures.

"Finally, one with pictures! I'll just sit down and take a look." Cuttlefish sits in the chair and opens up the book. He skims through the pages and stops on one talking about the Peloponnesian War.

"Another war, huh." He flips a few pages, landing on one about Alexander the Great. "Kind of looks like the statue!" He flips through a whole bunch of pages and lands on the French Revolution, flips through some more and lands on the U.S. Civil War. Voices are faintly heard outside the room.

" _Cap'n...Cap'n..."_

"I think someone's calling me. D'oh, of course! I didn't tell them where I was!"

"Captain! Where are you?!" Marie and Callie yell all over.

"Where could the old coot be?" Pearl asked Marine.

"I don't know. I hope he's alright." Marina says.

"Don't worry girls, I'm here!" Cuttlefish says while slowly walking to them.

"Gramps!" Callie says while running to him. "I-uh mean captain, you're alright."

"Yeah, I just came from the library!"

"They have a library?" Marie asked. "I wouldn't mind seeing it."

"Neither would I!" Marina said.

"Geez Marina, could you not." Pearl said.

"I don't think we're suppose to go in there." Cuttlefish said. "I don't even know how I got there or how the books lasted so long."

"I suppose that Clay might know." Marie said. "Speaking of which, where is he?"

"He went to talk to Kari, right?" Callie said.

"Maybe we should head back to the Medical Room. Clay might be looking for us there."

 **Medical Room**

"Give me a single reason why I should let you live Kari?" Clay told to Kari, who was strapped down into a hospital bed.

"How about the fact that you don't have any authority to kill me." Kari responded.

"That can be arranged."

"It's too late to do anything to me now Clay. It has already begun."

"What...has begun?"

"I guess that you'll have to find out later. Just one thing that you should know:History repeats itself"

Clay looks behind him to see Callie and Marie looking for him.

"Never mind you, I need to do something important. I will decide your fate later." Clay walks away from the room towards Callie and Marie.

"How'd it go with Kari?" Marie asked.

"She tried to kill me."

"WHAT?! I SWEAR, I'LL-" Callie yelped, quickly covering her mouth afterwards. "Sorry."

"I did the same to her by stabbing her in the neck with a pen. She survived, _unfortunately_ " Anyways, where did y'all go? I didn't see you guys with Heather.

"We went to go look for gram-I-I mean Captain Cuttlefish." Callie said.

"Cuttlefish is your grand-dad, got it."

"Shh, don't tell anyone." Callie said.

"Try telling everyone else." Clay said while pointing to Pearl, Marina, Jane,and Sally.

"Forgot that Jane and Sally were here too." Callie said.

"Speaking of which, I thought Charles and Dustin were going to come by." Clay said. "Actually now that I think of it, they did have to walk all the way here from where they were. I'll just call Edward to see if he's seen them yet, that is if he's outside right now." Clay presses a few keys on his earpiece until it starts dialing. "By the way, where was Cuttlefish anyways?"

"I was at yer library! Couldn't understand a single thing." Cuttlefish said.

"We have a library? When did they-" Clay was interrupted by a voice from his earpiece.

"Hello?"

"Ed, I was calling to see if two Inklings, by the name of Charles and Dustin, had come by."

"I was just going to call you about that. They're right here in front of me." Edward said.

"Well let them in and bring them to the Medical Room."

"Copy that." To Charles and Dustin. "Follow me." Edward opened the hatch and began to lead them into the Institution.

"This place is a lot bigger than I expected it to be." Charles said.

"We get that a lot." Responded Edward. The three of them get to the Medical Room and are now behind Heather's room.

"So, what exactly happened to her?" Charles asked Edward.

"Kari, the psycho here, blew a hole through her stomach. Miraculously, she is alive, even with our brief understanding of your boilogy. She's still unconscious, but will wake up soon. You can go inside if you want."

"Thanks." Charles went inside the room. Dustin, on the other hand, was standing outside.

"You're not going with him?" Edward asked.

"I am pretty uncomfortable with being in a hospital, especially with unconscious people that I know. I might go later."

"Okay then, just don't like get yourself lost, or something." Edward walked away towards the exit. Dustin looked to Heather's door, thinking about something, visibly showing discomfort on Dustin's face. At the other side of the door, Charles is seen sitting by Heather's side, holding her left hand. A tear is seen rolling down Charles's cheek. Surprisingly, he closes in to her and kisses her forehead. He then goes to sit in one of the chairs, silently speaking to himself. Outside the room, a loud thud is heard, followed by a dragging sound. This startles Charles, but doesn't really care for it. What gets his attention are the gunshots that are heard seconds later.

 **The Library**

A bird's eye view of the library shows the top of the bookshelves. The main entrance is opened, revealing a hooded figure going to the left bookshelf, taking a book from it. The name of the book can't be seen, but a glimpse of a symbol is seen: A black swastika. The figure approaches the entrance at the same time as the gunshots are heard. The figure then appears to make a nodding gesture before walking out.


	22. Chapter 20: Betrayal

**Medical Room**

 _Bang-Ba-Bang!_

"Huh? The hell was that?" Charles told to himself. Soon after, more gunshots are heard, this time from automatic rifles. Some stray bullets penetrate part of the wall in the room.

"FUCK! I've got to go-n-no, I can't leave Heather here, or she'll surely get shot." A few seconds later, a grenade detonates near the Medical Room, sending debris crashing into the room. "Never mind, I think it's safer here now." Charles grabs Heather and gently puts her on the floor, using her bed as protection against stray bullets. A person screams out something. Since it was in English, he doesn't understand what it says. The tone is the only thing Charles understood, as it was said not in pain, but in pride

"These humans need to get their shit together, or they will finish killing each other off." A door is heard being kicked down with gunshots following. More doors are heard being kicked down and gunshots at whoever was inside. The noise was getting closer until it was at their door. Charles looked around the room for anything that can be a weapon. The door was soon kicked down, revealing an armed human.

"NOOO!" Charles lunges at the humans and bites the exposed neck, causing the man to drop his gun and for some blood to spill. The human grabs Charles by the neck and grabs a knife from his belt.

"Fucking squid-OUGH!" The human screams when Charles punches his neck. The man drops both the knife and Charles, being picked up immediately by Charles. Charles then slashes his stomach, making some of the man's intestines visible. Immediately, the knife is pushed into his left eye, managing not to kill him. The knife is finally taken out and shoved down his throat, protruding his neck, finishing him off. The blood covered body falls to the ground, pouring out more blood on the floor. Charles drops the knife and looks at the body, not being phased in the slightest. Charles picks up the man's gun and slowly peeks onto the outside.

"Nobody's here. I think they're hunting the others down. I should go help, but" Charles looks back at Heather. "-but I can't. I have to stay here with her." Charles puts the bed back in place, and picks up Heather again, placing her in the bed. Charles stays on the door, looking out for anyone else.

"Wait, where's Dustin?!"

 **Assembly Room**

In the Assembly Room, Clay

 _Bang-Ba-Bang!_

"Were those gunshots?!" Clay said. "Who the fuck did that?"

"Is this another attack?!" Callie fearfully asked.

"This better not fucking happen again. Marie, take everyone to the bedrooms and lock the doors!"

Marie looked at everyone else. "Okay, everyone follow me!" Marie looks back at Clay. "You better not do something stupid."

"Whatever I do won't be as stupid as the ones attacki-" Bullets whiz by Clay's head, penetrating a wall in front of him. Clay quickly draws his handgun and fires at the one shooting, landing three shots on their chest. "GO NOW!" Clay yells at the rest. Marie begins to push them to the rooms. Callie reaches her arm out, as if trying to grab Clay. While Clay is distracted with Callie, someone tackles Clay to the ground. They pull out a combat knife and try to stab Clay, but Clay manages to take a hold of their arm. Clay then knees them in their chest and manages to roll on top of them. Clay then pushes his fingers through their eyes, making them drop their knife. Clay picks the knife up with his blood-stained fingers, immediately getting kicked to the ground by someone else. The second person aims their rifle at Clay, but Clay manages to throw the knife at their neck, killing them. The first person is now up, but gets shot at by Clay after picking up the 2nd person's rifle.

"Where are Elena and Sheldon at? I didn't see them recently. Doesn't matter now, I have to go check-" A grenade then detonates, sending debris flying towards Clay, knocking him to the ground. Clay's head begins to ring, while his vision is slightly blurred. Clay notices that metal shards were all over his left leg, causing hem to bleed rapidly. Clay takes a piece of cloth from the person he killed and wraps it around his leg. As the smoke clears up, a hooded figure is seen charging towards Clay, at the same time, another figure is seen going to the Medical Room with a rifle.

" **GLORY TO THE ENLIGHTENED, DEATH TO THE TRAITORS!"** The figure yells, pouncing on Clay. Clay fires the rifle, hitting the hooded figure, a man with a black mask, in the chest. The figure knocks Clay over and slices his left arm.

"AHH!" Clay yells in pain. The man tries to stab Clay again, but Clay grabs his arm, quickly flips him over, and snaps his arm by kicking his elbow, inverting it. Before the man could even scream, Clay kicks the man's jaw, snapping it out of his mouth. Clay grabs one of the blades and pushes it through the man's heart, killing him instantly. Clay takes the other blade, puts it on the man's neck, and stomps on it, decapitating the man.

"These idiots deserve to die, they can't use a gun at all." Clay tells himself. He picks up the gun and approaches the Medical Room when he hears a man scream out something in pain.

"Fucking squid-OUGH!"

"Who the hell was that? I better go take a look." Clay tells himself. Clay begins to head to the Medical Room when he sees another figure out of his corner of his eye heading to the bedrooms. Clay quickly turns around, but gets nailed in the head by a tomahawk. Luckily for Clay, it was the bottom of the handle that hit him, not the blade itself. Clay falls back and hits the back of his head on a piece of metal. The figure approaches Clay and lifts his foot up. That's the last thing Clay sees.

 **Bedrooms: Clay's Room**

" _Who the hell was that? I better go take a look."_ is faintly heard in Clay's bedroom, where the rest are hiding.

Callie hears the voice. "I think that was Cla-" **Thunk...Stomp...**

"I heard something fall." Marie said. "That better have not been Clay." Sounds of clothing dragging on the floor are heard. The sound passes near the bedroom's door, letting blood seep in under the door.

"NO! CLA-" Callie's mouth is quickly covered by Marie. Callie is doing her best to not cry at this moment. The dragging sound stopped, followed by footsteps re-approaching the room. A gun is heard being loaded. The door gets kicked, but is held back by the bed and dresser that Jane and Sally moved. The door is kicked again, but to no avail. A gunshot is heard, going through the door and nearly hitting Marina.

"YOU BITCH!" Yells Pearl while firing a gun at the door. A thud is heard soon after with more blood coming into the room.

"WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?!" Marina asked. "CLAY DIDN'T TELL US WHERE THEY WERE, IF THERE WERE ANY?!"

"It was in this briefcase. It was opened and loaded, luckily." Pearl responded. Another bang was heard on the wall, with the sound of dragging soon after.

"I think they're taking Clay's body, but why? Hes dead." Pearl said.

"HE'S NOT DEAD! H-HE'S NOT!" Callie weeps out. Marie comforts Callie while she cries.

Marie then says, "I think that we'll come out later. Right now we must-" **BOOM!** The entire room shakes as a large chunk of the already damaged roof falls down.

"AH!" Marie yells. "Where even are the guards?"

 **Outside the Institution, minutes before...**

"Are you sure you don't want to go inside?" Edward asks Sheldon and Elena. "Everyone inside were wondering where you both were."

"We're fine out here." Elena responded. "Besides, it's nice out here."

"She's right." Sheldon concurred. One of the guards, for no reason, shot at a random guard, killing them. Edward killed him with his rifle in response.

"What? Why'd he do that-?" Edward was interrupted by loud distant marching.

"What the hell?!" Edward said after he saw familiar shapes. "T-Troopers?!" Edward immediately opened fire at them as did two of the remaining guards.

"Sheldon, Elena, run!" Edward yelled. Sheldon and Elena did as told and ran to the direction of Inkopolis.

The troopers began opening fire at the guards, in which they retaliated by taking cover behind nearby rocks and peek shooting. Edward tried calling Clay, Lela, and all other defense, but with no response. This kept going on for a few minutes until rumbling was heard.

"Clay, Clay, do you read me?"

 _CZHHHH_

"Fuck, Lela, do you copy?"

"Edward! Why didn't you answer?!"Lela said.

"I tried contacting nearly everyone! Why didn't y'all answer!"

"We never got it, besides, we're under attack!"

"What?! By who-" A whooshing sound was heard, then **BOOM!** Edward was launched back and knocked unconscious. Rumbling underground was then heard/felt., with faint screams being heard.


	23. Chapter 21: Survivors

_High pitched ringing_

Blurry vision is all that is seen from Edward, who is somehow alive from the explosion. He tries to stand up, but is restricted by something. Edward looks down and sees what is preventing him from doing so: large pieces of rock that flew off from the explosion. Edward tries to move his legs, but is unable, yet he feels his feet _trying_ to move, which gives Edward slight relief. Edward looks around to see if anyone is around. To his left is another guard that was launched back, only that guard wasn't as lucky as a sharp rock landed in his torso, splitting him in two. Edward turned to the left and saw a 7 foot crater, just where the hatch to the Institution was. In the crater, Edward could roughly see multiple footprints, many of which looked freshly made, all leading to where the hatch was. Edward panicked and tried again to move the rock, this time slightly moving it. Edward kept trying until he was able to get it off his legs. Edward looked at his legs, bleeding and slightly swollen, and tried to stand up. He slowly stood up and painfully began walking to the crater. He looked around for any weapon that he could take, but there were none in sight. Edward looked again to the crater and saw that the top half of the ladder had collapsed, meaning that he needed another way to get down. He knew that with the condition of his legs he couldn't go down, but then remembered that Sheldon and Elena could help him.

"Sheldon and Elena could get me a ladder and-" Edward looked around. "Oh right, I told them to run. They're probably back at Inkopolis. Hopefully getting help. Well, I can't just stand here and wait for something to happen." Edward began to grab random debris to see if _anything_ could help him get down. Edward looked around the entire day until nighttime. Edward was only able to make a "ladder" that was 5 feet long. Edward decided to head to Inkopolis in the morning to see if he can get a ladder.

"I should've gone to Inkopolis instead of looking around for scraps. I just hope that everyone else is alright." Edward fell asleep behind a rock, shivering in the cool night.

 **Inkopolis: Ammo Knights, next day in the morning**

"What can we do?!" Sheldon said panicky, while pacing around in circles.

"Hey Sheldon, chill out. I know that this is crazy and shit, but panicking won't do us any good. First thing that we must do is figure out who did this and their cause, if any." Elena looked at Sheldon for 10 seconds. "Well, any ideas?"

"How am I supposed to know anything? I haven't even seen the interior! To be honest, you know all I do and more."

"You're a weapons expert, so try and see if we could use anything to fight back!" Elena said to Sheldon. "While you do that, I will try to see if I can pinpoint who would've done this and why."

"Good plan Elena, but I must do something very important first." Sheldon went to the main entrance and put a sign on the window.

"What was that for?" Elena said.

"We don't want anyone walking in on us." Sheldon said, making Elena blush a bit.

"Wrong c-choice of words S-Sheldon." Elena said with stutter.

"L-Let's move on from that, okay?" Sheldon said. "Now I'm gonna go to the back and check to see if I have anything that my help." He went to the back closet and began to look around. Elena grabbed a notebook laying around and began to write things down. Around an hour past and Sheldon hasn't come out of the closet yet. Elena, on the other hand, had only written down the people that she knew and the troopers' description. Suddenly, a loud whirring was heard. The whirring sounded like one of a jet engine. Elena ran to the closet to see what caused that noise.

"Sheldon, are you alright?!" Elena yelled.

"I'm fine, and so is everyone else." Sheldon then moved to the left, showing a large cannon-like artifact.

"What is that thing?"

"I present to you: The Tesla gun!"

"Cool name, what does it do?"

"It uh...does something, something cool!"

"What does it do then."

"I'm actually not sure. This was found long ago by my grandpa and was kept, although its function was never really known."

"Then how come you know it's a gun? And why is it called the "Tesla" gun?"

"Look, if it looks like a gun, it's a gun. The name Tesla is what could be roughly translated from the human languages by linguists of the past. Now, the reason that I have it here right now is that I finally now what it's for!"

"Don't keep me waiting, what does it do?" Elena now sounded a bit impatient.

"While I was down here, I remembered that I had gained access to some human weaponry and managed to give a rough estimation of what it does. The name "Tesla" actually comes from the name of some human, I think named Nickle Tesla, or something like that, who was recognized for their "Tesla coil". This gun was made to harness their technology to send large bolts of electricity at whoever this laser targeted." Sheldon pointed at a small lens at the top of the wide barrel.

"Will it work on humans and troopers?"

"Elena, this thing can produce as much energy as the Great Zapfish itself, of course it will work on them. Now that I think about it, why can't we just use something like this to power Inkopolis?"

"I'm no scientist, but don't you have to understand the technology to use it for other things?"

"Yeah, you're right. Energy solving crisis aside, we could actually be able to do something against anyone who attacks us."

"Great, then how do you fire it?"

"Simple, you first-uhhh." Sheldon began to look around the Tesla gun, looking for something. "You see, you have to find the activation button."

"How about pulling the trigger on the handle, like every gun has." Elena pointed to the trigger on the handle of the Tesla gun. "But before you do, aim at something that you wouldn't mind betting blown up."

"Good thinking." Sheldon picked the gun up, clearly struggling to do so. Sheldon then aimed it at Elena."Say cheese!"

"Whoa whoa whoa, not me!"

"I know, it's just a prank." Sheldon opened another door in the room, leading to the weapon testing room. "We'll test it in here. Come on!" Elena followed Sheldon into the room and got all of the targets ready.

"Now Elena, do me a favor and help me hold up the gun."

"Sure thing." Elena held the back of the gun, while Sheldon was in the front, aiming it.

"On three, two, one!" Sheldon pulled the trigger, making the Tesla gun begin to whir loudly, but began to stop whirring when Sheldon let the trigger go. "Oh, it needs to charge first." Sheldon got ready again. "Okay, on three, two, one!" Sheldon pulled and held the trigger, making the whirring get louder and louder. A red laser appeared, landing on the green blow-up target. Electrical bolts started forming around the barrel, and Elena began to look a bit dizzy.

"Fire!" Sheldon yelled, letting go of the trigger. _**TZZZZZ!**_ The bolts dashed towards the target, instantly blowing it up and chaining to all the other targets, also blowing them up. The lights of the room flickered for a moment until exploding, sending shards of glass flying. The whirring started to get quieter until the gun shut off.

"That was awesome! What did you think?!" Sheldon looked back at Elena, seeing her slightly nauseous.

"I-uh think we sho-ould w-wear something f-for protection a-against it." Elena struggled to say.

"Looks like it affected your locating organ, and everything else. This thing must have some serious firepower." Sheldon said.

"W-Well, it did chain damage and blew the lights out. Speaking of which, let's get back inside, I hate the dark."

"Glad I'm not the only one-I mean sure, why not." They walked in inside and Sheldon put the Tesla gun down on the table. "I'll go see if I have anything to protect you from its effects." Sheldon went back into the closet and began to look through boxes. Elena looked at her notebook again, giving her an idea.

"I know what we can do." Elena said to herself. She then began to write on the notebook, filling 6 pages, front and back, in diagrams and schematics in 5 minutes. Sheldon then came out of the closet with a hazmat-like body suit.

"This suit was used when we were working with wiring near the Zapfish tower. I think that this might help you."

"Great! I also just came up with a plan on how to save everyone else."

"What's the plan?"

"I call it, attract and detract. I'll tell you about the plan while we head back, right now, get everything you think that we might need to use the Tesla gun."

 **The Institution: Also the next day.**

"Do you think it's safe to get out?" Marina asked Marie.

"Yeah, I really gotta use the toilet." Pearl commented. "And there hasn't been any noise since yesterday, so it must be okay."

"We'll need someone to go check it out." Marie said. "I'll go check it out."

"Marie, please be careful." Callie worryingly said to Marie while grabbing her arm." We might've lost everyone else, but I really don't want to lose you."

"Keep a sharp eye out there Marie." Cuttlefish said.

"Sure will cap, but don't worry much about me because-" Marie grabbed the pistols, which were now placed on the bed, and twirled them in a circle. "I have these two, and I know how to use them." _In Marie's mind: "They're just guns with way more recoil, don't forget that."_

"I'll make a knock to tell you that it's me. It's going to be the rhythm of one of our songs, so pay attention." Marie slowly opened the door and stepped into the hallway. _Mentally "Those assholes better be out of here. I hope that I can find some survivors too."_ Marie walked for about 15 minutes with no signs of life anywhere. She checked all the rooms she knew of, including the Medical Room. In those 15 minutes, all she found were the ravaged bodies of humans, many not in one piece. Marie went to check the Medical Room one last time before heading back. When she was nearly done checking all the rooms again, footsteps approaching were heard. Marie quickly drew her guns, but stopped when she saw who it was.

"Charles? You're alive!" Marie said, while putting the guns back.

"Shh, they haven't left yet." Charles said. "Some left carrying bodies, one of them being Clay's. The rest went elsewhere in the Institution."

"And where were you? I checked all the rooms here twice and never saw you."

"I found an entrance to more rooms below this floor. They were pretty old, but worked to hide Heather and I."

"Is she still unconscious?" Marie asked.

"No, she's awake, but she's still pretty weak. Also, have you by any chance seen Dustin? I never saw him after the bullets were heard."

"No, but I never saw any Inkling ink on the floor, so that's a good sign."

"Speaking of which, is everyone else alright?"

"Callie, Pearl, Marina, Jane, Sally, and Cuttlefish are okay. I don't know about Sheldon and Elena, but I remember that they were in the surface, so there's a chance that they might've escaped. Clay is...well, you know, and Edward might be in the same situation as well."

"Where are y'all hiding?"

"In Clay's bedroom. I think that we should come here because it's really crammed in there and there's no bathroom in the room."

"Good idea, I'll go make room." Marie walked back to the room and knocked on the door in the rhythm of "Calamari Inkantation". The door slowly opened.

"Awesome, you're back!" Jane said.

"Jane, be quiet." Sally said.

"There's very good news. I actually found Charles alive and Heather conscious. Not only that but Charles secured the Medical Room, and let us come in." Marie looks at Pearl. "And there's three separate bathrooms in there."

"Sold! Let's go!" Pearl said.

"Pearlie, be quiet."

"That actually reminds me, there are some not-so good news as well." Marie said. "Charles said that some are still in the Institution, hidden in one of the hallways, and Charles isn't with Dustin. Luckily, there were no traces of Inkling ink, so he's not dead, or at least didn't die out here." They all grabbed their things and began to carefully head to the Medical Room. They entered and went underground to the old rooms. In the first room, Heather is seen, looking rather weary and tiresome.

"Heather!" Callie said, rushing to give her a hug. "I'm so glad that you're alright!"

"It's nice to see you too Callie." Heather said. "Where's Clay, Edward, Lela, Sheldon, Elena, and Dustin?"

"Clay and Edward might be...gone." Marie explained. "Sheldon and Elena might've escaped. As for Elena, I don't think any of us know where she is." Heather clearly look sad, slightly tearing up.

"At least we are safe." Heather said.

Sheldon and Elena are seen heading back to the Institution in a car. The Tesla gun is secured to the roof. In the inside, they are seen carrying a large backpack-like device. Elena is carrying her laptop. In the middle of driving, they spot someone walking the opposite way.

"Hey Sheldon, who's that to your left?" Elena asked while pointing to a figure walking in the distance.

"Let me see." Sheldon said, steering the car towards the figure. As they closed in, they saw the figure was none other than...

"Edward?!" Sheldon said, stopping the car a couple of feet from Edward. Edward turned to look at who was in the car, immediately noticing who they were.

"Sheldon? Elena? You actually lived?!" Edward said while running to them. Sheldon and Elena stepped out of the car, with Elena taking her laptop with her.

"Thank goodness you're alive!" Elena said. "We thought the missile killed you."

"I thought the same thing." Edward responded. "I'm not entirely sure how I'm still alive, especially since many others were ripped apart or crushed. But I'm not entirely okay as my legs got stuck under a rock and are weak. Also, why are you returning to the Institution?"

"We came back to save everyone else." Sheldon said. "And we have both the equipment and planning necessary to do so."

"I really don't think that anyone else is alive." Edward said.

"I mean, you're somehow alive, so miracles do indeed happen." Elena said. She began to press some keys on her laptop, bringing up a screen with schematics. "Edward, we need you to help us in the plan to get inside."

"What do you need help with."

"Just one thing: Where's your power supply." Elena handed Edward her laptop and they began to talk about where it was and how to get in. They planned and revised for about half an hour, then kept on heading to the Institution. When inside the car, Edward saw the Tesla gun that Elena and Sheldon mentioned.

"Where did you find this?" Edward said.

"My grandpa found it long ago. We just found out how it works by accessing your human database and with trial-and-error."

"Are you sure it's ours? I've never seen anything like this. Plus, it's in very good working conditions for its time here."

"Well, that doesn't matter now. What matters is that it can help us save the survivors." Elena said. Edward nods in agreement, and lowers his head, thinking about something.

"I hope everyone's alright."

 **Location: Unknown**

Machines beeping is all that is heard here. There is light emanating from a lonesome light bulb. In a small, secluded room, bodies are seen. They are unresponsive...

At least that's what it looks like...

 **A/N: BTW, if any of you are wondering, I know it's not Nickle Tesla. Well, enjoy the rest of your day!**

 **Happy Halloween/Día de los Muertos/Other holidays in this time period that I do not know of.**


	24. Chapter 22: Rescue

In the outside of the Institution, a car approaches the "entrance", being guarded by only the corpses of the previous guards. The car comes to a slow halt, disrupting the dirt beneath it. Coming out is Sheldon, who is followed by Edward and Elena. They begin to take the Tesla gun out, along with the backpack-like device. Edward is given the Tesla gun and given brief instructions on how to operate it. The backpack lights up, emitting a blue hue from the outline of the device. A meter on the Tesla gun begins to move a pointer to the green section on the very left. After the green section appears the color yellow and then red. Elena begins to type rapidly on her laptop, causing an audible beep from the backpack. After that, the laptop displays energy levels and stability of the Tesla gun. The laptop starts to show a bit of visual glitches and the car's lights are dimly lit. Elena, while physically fine, gets an uncomfortable sensation through her body.

"You know what to do Ed?" Elena asked. Edward stood silent for a second, then answered.

"Yep, just disable all communications and power with the gun. Afterwards, send a code to your laptop, telling you that you can enter. Finally, I take on everyone else, trying not to die, while you both go and rescue any survivors." Edward takes a deep breath and walks to the "entrance". Edward grabs a rope and secures it to a rock. He drops the rope and begins his descent.

"I just hope that they don't randomly decide to check up here." Edward said. He continued to descend until reaching the bottom after nine and a half minutes. Edward quietly moves to cover, peeking out to check if the coast is clear. While no movement is seen or heard, faint voices are heard from deep in one of the hallways. Edward quickly and silently goes to the Assembly Room and heads for one of the hallways, near where the voices are coming from. Edward passes a door, one that he remembered that had many compartments underground. He proceeded past it silently. He kept going to the end of the hallway and reached a lonesome door. Edward opened the door, causing a slight creak to be heard. The voices from the previous room seem to continue going unaffected, good news for Edward. He proceeds to close the door behind him, revealing the entrance to the Electrical Room to be behind the open door. He puts in a key-code and the door slowly opens from the middle. Edward walks down the stairs to the machinery that powers the Institution. Large generators are seen, whirring constantly, along with large amounts of wiring stretching out from them. The entire room is far bigger than it seems. Edward keeps walking down, knowing where the main power source is. Edward keeps walking, going past many machinery, some of which he doesn't know how they operate. He finally arrives at the main reactor, a large and highly advanced nuclear reactor behind heavy shielding. On the front, a large control panel is seen, with all kinds of information being displayed.

"I don't even know how this nuclear reactor could've survived." Edward tells himself. "To be honest, there's a lot of things I should know that I don't. Well, there is one thing that I do know." Edward begins to mess around with the control panel, connecting a small device to it afterwards. Edward starts charging up the Tesla gun and messing around, again, with the control panel. The lights begin to flicker and the whirring of generator begins to weaken. Massive sparks home around the Tesla gun's barrel, affecting the machinery even more. Finally, the device makes a high pitched beep. The device then transmits a signal to Elena's laptop, reading:

 _Step 2 is a go. Proceed with caution._

"Okay Sheldon," Elena says to Sheldon. "It's our turn to go inside."

"O-Okay then." Sheldon nervously says. They both walk in, with Elena still carrying her laptop, and begin to descend downwards. They both quickly scale down, knowing that the lights going out means that the revolters will take notice and go to the Electrical Room to check. Elena suddenly hands Sheldon her laptop.

 _Whispering: "Why are you giving me this?"_ Sheldon asks.

" _So I can do this."_ Elena then jumps down in squid form, reaching the bottom unharmed. Sheldon "facepalms" his face, forgetting that Inklings could do that. Elena looks around to where they might be hiding.

 _Mentally: "Where, WHERE would they be?! Clay's Room? Too obvious and one of the first place to be searched. Then where would they hide? This is not going to be easy._ " Gunshots are heard in the distance, followed by a electrical zapping. More gunshots are heard, some hitting the roof, but were too followed by electrical zapping. Elena notices a faint blue hue coming from the other side of her. In the darkness, another light is seen to her left. The light reveals the face of Charles holding a flashlight. Elena runs to him, tripping over something she couldn't see in the dark.

"Clumsy as always." Charles says. "Great to see that you're here."

"You're alive? H-How?" Elena says, feeling flabbergasted .

"I could ask you the same thing, but there's not much time for that. We have to get the rest out of here."

"What do you mean "the rest" Elena says. "Is there more survivors?"

"If you mean survivors that aren't trying to fill us with bullets, then yes. And it looks the rebels are fighting someone else. You wouldn't happen to know who that is, right?" Charles asks.

"That's Edward using an ancient human weapon that Sheldon has." Elena says.

"How the hell did he survive that explosion? The explosion nearly collapsed all the remaining roof!" Charles says.

"Well, I don't know, but what I do know is that we have to hurry to get the rest." Elena says. "Edward won't last for long. Where are the others?"

"They're all in the Medical Room." Elena begins to follow Charles, holding his arm to not get lost. They begin to go down and Charles turns the flashlight on, revealing everyone else.

"There's not much time." Charles tells the rest. "Wen need to get out now, while Edward holds the rebels back." Everyone begins to walk out, all looking confused at the news that Edward is alive. Charles helps move the weakened Heather while Elena leads the way to the exit. When they get there, Sheldon is seen looking at the laptop screen, looking slightly worried.

"What's wrong Sheldon?" Elena asks.

"The energy levels of the Tesla gun are very low and he doesn't have any other weapon. We need to get him some back-up." Sheldon says. Immediately, a door creak is heard, with a blue hue seen coming out of a hallway. The blue hue began to flicker on and off, with the meter now being on red, instead of green when it was first used.

"Did I miss anything?" Edward asked, shutting off the Tesla gun at the same time.

"Ed!" Callie said while going to hug Edward. Callie immediately began to feel dizzier the closer she got to Edward. "O-Oh man, I-I feel w-weird." Callie dizzily said.

"Maybe don't hug me now." Edward said. "The gun seems to affect your sensory organ, or something like that. It's something Clay...told me." Callie teared up slightly at the sound of Clay's name. Edward lowered his head, but then regained his posture, as if remembering something.

"Look, we all think Clay is gone." Edward said. "And he is, but not in the way that we think. I'm pretty certain that they didn't and wouldn't kill him. There's something that they need from him. Something only Clay understands, as he made it."

"And what would that be?" Marie asked.

"How the Inkling and Octoling works." Edward said. "I know that the rebels won't just stop at killing humans. They will come after the "root" of the problem, which is y'all. Clay made some crazy discoveries, or so he told me, that he specifically made that only he can understand. He was planning on making them as he called "understandable", but decided that he would wait a while, a smart thing he did."

"So did Clay know this shit would go down?" Pearl asked. "If so, why didn't he try and stop it?"

"Clay probably didn't expect _this,_ but he knew that some tensions were rising, and releasing information that could be used against you would be a serious threat. If he knew a rebellion would happen, then he would've found out the leaders and have them detained." Edward explained.

"We'll have all this worked out, but now we need to get out of here." Cuttlefish said.

"Good cal Cap'n." Edward said.

"Wait, are all that is left?" Heather weakly asked.

"Yeah, isn't there more good survivors left?" Sally asked.

"The sad truth is that there probably was some more survivors, but they might not be alive. Not only that, but I might've killed most of the rebels. That sounds good, but most of our population is dead. We had 62 dead in the first attack by troopers, reducing our population to 154. The rebellion killed who knows how many more, and I'm pretty sure I killed at least 12 rebels, making the population at the very least 142. So around 34% of the population is dead. I'm expecting that percentage to go up to 40% or more."

"Then let's do our best to lower the percentage." Cuttlefish said. They all began to scale the rope. After an hour, they all managed to get out. They all got to the car and began to talk about what to do next.

"We should all head to Inkopolis to peacefully think about what exactly we should do." Edward said. He began to pull out a folder, containing many of Clay's research papers. "Took these to prevent anyone else from having them." From the folder, a paper slipped out, showing a line of code and a brief description at the bottom that reads:

 _Just imagine, a GPS inside everyone! Very convenient, isn't it Ed?_

"What the? How did he?" Edward just looked at the paper, looking extremely perplexed.

"What's wrong?" Marina asked.

"Clay somehow knew that I would read this paper! He never told me about a GPS inside people. Was this planned? No, he knew something would happen to him, and left this, but how did he know that I would even look at this, or that it didn't get destroyed?"

"We should all look at this in Inkopolis." Jane said. "He might not be dead after all." They all looked at the car and stopped.

"We're not all going to fit inside." Edward said. "I think someone should drive some of us to Inkopolis, while the rest walk there. After dropping them off, they would pick some of the people walking and keep doing so until everyone is at Inkopolis. I think Cap'n, Heather, and Charles should be first, being at they're either injured or tired, and Sheldon would drive them there."

"Uhh, now I have to walk!" Pearl ranted. "I'm also tired!"

"Pearlie, you're not really old, you didn't just have a hole in your stomach, or you didn't fight other humans." Marina responded. Pearl just huffed and thought : _"And I thought I was rude."_

In an unknown place, large discussions in a foreign language are being held. It seems like an argument is taking place. The creatures species is currently indeterminable. In a room, far off from where the discussion is held, two hospital-like beds are seen being occupied by unknown individuals. Next to the beds, hospital-like monitors are seen hooked up to the bodies. The constant beeping of a monitor is heard.

 _Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep_

 _Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep_

 _Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep-Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep_

The sound of cables being dropped are heard, along with bed sheets being removed.

 _The hell? Where am I? Oh, that's right._


	25. Chapter 23: Who's Rescuing Who?

At Inkopolis, Edward, Callie, Marie, Cuttlefish, Sally, Jane, Pearl, Marina, Elena, Sheldon, Heather, and Charles all go into Tentakeel Outpost to carefully review what Clay had left. Sheldon left and came back 15 minutes later with more research equipment. Edward sat looking at the sheet of paper, looking the most puzzled of them all.

"I still don't understand why or how Clay did this." Edward says to himself, scratching his head. "This all just doesn't make any-" Edward then notices some glossy text that's revealed to him by the reflection of the sun. The text fills the entire sheet of paper, top to bottom.

"Why did it just show up?" Edward said to himself. "We were outside in the sun for a pretty long time. This isn't some ordinary writing ink, or invisible ink." Edward looks up at where the sun is and soon realizes something. He looks at the paper's glossy writing, which at the top says: _The one who is always behind you always leads the way._ Edward notices that the shadow at eye level reaches his feet.

"Hey, about how tall is that rock?" Edward asks to Marie.

"Like 60 feet, why?" Marie says. Edward grabs Elena's laptop and starts to type in numbers into the calculator. He then looks at his shadow. _Mentally: "I'm 5'10"_. Few seconds of silence pass until...

"36.31!" Edward yells, making everyone look at him oddly.

"Great, what does that mean?" Marina asks. "Is it something very important?"

"It's the angle measurement of where the sun is." Edward says

"What's so important about it?" Pearl asks. "Is it a secret code or something?"

"It might just be. Hold on." Edward begins to think about those numbers. _Mentally: "36.31, come on, think of something that might help..._ Edward begins to flashback to one thing that Clay had told him.

" _The position of the sun had always reminded me of how something bad was."_

"Hey Edward, you might want to stop thinking." Marie said. "There's more on the sheet." The sheet read afterwards: _Si por alguna raz_ _ó_ _n entiendes esto, para de pensar y usa tu l_ _ógica,_ _no la matem_ _á_ _ticas._

"Shit. Why'd he have to use fucking Spanish, I barely know any!" Edward said. "And not only that, but there are no translation books in the Institution."

"But didn't you kill every baddie in there?" Callie said. "Surely it's not dangerous anymore."

"That wasn't all of them. Those were the "unimportant". Those who couldn't think or fight as well as the leaders. Besides, the the database has been locked from any sources gaining access to it, so there also goes that." Edward looked to the group. "You wouldn't happen to know about Spanish?"

"We were surprised your kind _had_ one." Elena responded. "To be honest, if anyone was to attempt to translate what it means, it would be you."

"I'll have to try my best." Edward said, reading the sheet very slowly. "If I'm correct, this translates to: Yes for any something something stop thinking and use logic no math. I don't think this is completely correct, but that's the best that we have."

"From what you said, doesn't it just mean to use logic and not math?" Sally said. "So, the thing you were doing with angles, stop doing it. Use "logic" instead of math."

"But what does logic mean here?" Jane asks. "I mean, some logic uses math, so it's a type of logic without math."

"I think what _logic_ means here is to try to locate his GPS he probably placed in himself." Marina said. "He probably knew that whoever was able to read the paper knew Spa-whatever you call it, which only you know."

"But how did he know that I would use math in this?" Edward asks Marina. "Heck, everyone would use logic but...me. Oh! So he left that note since I'm the only one who would immediately use math and to kind of understand Spanish, to tell me to use logic. This means that the rest of the writing is for me." Edward looks at the rest of the hidden writing, which is all in Spanish. "Goddammit Clay, you couldn't have at least told me of a secret Spanish translator or something. Wait, the cracker!" Edward grabs his translator box in his hip and sees a red/orange button hidden at the bottom of the front side. There are small words written above the button reading _Double-tap for instant Spanish translation._ Edward does as it says and a voice is heard.

 _To translate Spanish instantly, speak the words out after the three beeps. When finished, press the same button once._

Edward grabs the paper and waits for the three beeps to sound.

 _Beep-Beep-Beep_

Edward begins to speak. "Para usar el localizador, tienes que usar la frequencia que esta escrita al fin de esta hoja, pero primero, necesitas construir un transmitador y recividor. Despues de todo eso, podran encontrar mi position y venir por mi. Asombrosamente, este localizador fue hecho por ninguna razon en el momento perfecto."

 _Translating...Translating...Finished!_

" _To use the localizer, you have to use the frequency that is written at the end of this page, but first you will need to construct a transmitter and receiver. After all of that, you can find my position and come for me. Surprisingly, this localizer was made for no reason in the perfect moment."_

 _Translation has been completed._

"Well, looks like we have to build a transmitter/receiver." Edward said. "And the frequency is here on this sheet. But don't worry, this is a simple machine. We'll have it done in no time!"

 **3 Months Later; Location, Unknown**

"The hell? Where am I? Oh, that's right" Said Clay, soon propping out of bed. The monitor next to him was flat-line and still making noise. "Shut up already!" Clay grabs the monitor and breaks the screen, making the sound stop. "Finally." Clay looks around in the room to see Lela on another bed, vast asleep. Clay wonders that if she was asleep, then why hasn't she tried to escape.

"Hmm, maybe she did try to escape." Clay told himself. "She probably got caught and sedated." As if responding, Lela began to slowly open her eyes, noticing Clay out of bed.

"C-Clay? Y-You're alive." Lela weakly said. She began to slowly rise, gaining her strength back after a while. "How are you alive? When I last saw you, you were covered head to toe in blood."

"Why are you asking me? I was unconscious in that time. Who you should really be asking is the ones who operated on me."

"Wait, why would they save you?" Lela asks. "Weren't you like their main enemy or something like that?"

"They need me as I'm the only one who understands Inkling and Octoling biology."

"What about the rest of the Biology department?" Lela asks. "They too should know about their biology."

"They don't. I wrote them in very weird ways that only I can understand. I didn't release the information or make an attempt to give them a "translator", as I had a very strong feeling that the information would be weaponized."

"What are we going to do then? We won't be able to pretend being unconscious and they will do everything possible to get the information out of you. One way or another."

"That's where Edward comes into play. I left him a series of clues that only he will be able to figure out. The instructions tell him the necessary information to localize my GPS that I have in my body." Clay said. "The GPS was honestly a random thing I made that I'm glad I made. It shouldn't take them more than a few days." Lela checks a piece of paper on the table, telling today's date. "It looks like we've been here for 3 months."

"What? Three months? Seriously? Either something happened to them or Edward is just being dumb." Clay said. "The clues gave him more than enough information when solved." Lela turned around to him and raised a brow.

"Clay, how difficult were the clues?"

"Normal difficulty, why?"

"Is that all you did to the information?" Lela asked. "Did you do anything else that could've slowed them down?"

"I made the directions in Spanish, but told them how to translate them. Still, there's no reason why they should-" Quick footsteps are heard in the room. Both Clay and Lela approach the source of the sound, which was behind a hospital-like curtain. Lela quickly pulled it to the left, revealing Dustin behind it.

"AH! NOT ME!" Dustin screamed in fear.

"Dustin, shut the hell up!" Lela said while covering his mouth. "We don't want them to know that we're awake. Speaking of which, how long have you been awake for?"

"Uhh, like five days, why?" Dustin asked.

"Just wanted to know how you weren't captured again." Lela said.

"I just pretended as if they accidentally killed me by leaving a pool of ink in my hospital bed. After that, I just went place-to-place to hide from anyone else. But I wasn't just hiding, I was able to collect information about what the rebels were trying to do."

"Great!" Clay said. "And what did you collect?"

"You see, that's the thing, I did collect the information, well, recordings of the rebels speaking." Dustin said. "The only issue is that I can't understand a single thing of what they were saying, and it didn't even sound like your normal human language."

"Can we hear the recordings? Maybe Lela or I know the language." Dustin then proceeded to pull out an old voice recorder box. Dustin turned the volume knob to its second lowest setting and pressed a red button, which began to play the audio.

 _Gibberish-like sounds..._ Inkopolis... _Gibberish-like sounds..._ Inklings _...Gibberish-like sounds..._ Invasion...

After 5 minutes of audio, the recording ended.

"Did you not have more audio?" Clay asked. "That was only five minutes of talking, which sounded more like gibberish to me."

"Yeah, that isn't a human language, or at least one that we know of." Lela said "It sounds like they made up a language to keep things confidential."

"Good thing that I took pictures." Dustin said while pulling out his phone. He then showed them pictures of a map of Inkopolis and lines representing troop movements. Another picture showed an advanced version of a trooper, along with a missile truck. More pictures of possible captains/generals and soldiers were shown. But one picture seemed to frighten both Clay and Lela the most. In that picture, a rough sketch of a thermonuclear weapon is seen, along with a drawing of two mushroom clouds. The mushroom cloud to the left, which was much smaller, had the initials _**TS. B.**_ The other mushroom cloud, looking about three times bigger, was shown.

"They cannot be serious." Clay said. "We must be misunderstanding the drawing."

"I don't think we were." Lela said. 'And I think the one to the left was suppose to be the Tsar Bomba."

"Why would they make them again?" Clay asked Lela. "We've seen their effects once, and we never want to see them again."

"Well, maybe _WE_ don't, but they do." Lela said. "Besides, the reactor in the Institution kind of helped them think about this."

"Hey, why is this drawing so bad?" Dustin asked. "I mean it's a bomb, but how bad is it?"

"If we're correct, the bomb is three times stronger than the Tsar Bomba, the second strongest bomb ever made, behind whatever the hell was made that blew Antarctica the fuck up." Clay responded to Dustin. "The Tsar Bomba is already overkill enough, and they're making one three times its power? And how will they be able to launch it without killing themselves?"

"That's what we hope that they haven't figured out." Lela said to Clay. "That detail might be holding them back from making it."

"Let's put aside the bomb for now." Clay said. "Our main priority now is to alert everyone in Inkopolis about the invasion, and if at all possible, stop it before it even happens." Suddenly, footsteps are heard, getting closer and closer to the door. The door know begins to turn and the door is slowly opened. Dustin begins to panic and grabs a needle with fluid. He runs to the person entering and pierces it through their neck. The person, a nurse, tries to scream, but Dustin is covering their mouth. The nurse later shuts their eyes and falls unconscious.

"I think you stabbed the nurse with a sedation needle." Lela said. "Well, there's no time to waste, we need to hide the body and go on out."

 **A/N: If any symbols/signs are missing in Spanish, I apologize in advanced (unless you finished the chapter, which is the most probable thing now.), as many signs kept getting rejected.**


	26. Chapter 24: Surprises

Clay, Lela and Dustin finish hiding the nurse's body in a closet in the room. Many footsteps passed by the room, appearing to be heading farther and farther away from them.

"It's best of us to head out, but we should bring something as a weapon in case we need it." Clay suggested. "Let's see." Clay looked around and began to look in drawers, containers, and all over the place. In a drawer, there were four chef's knives.

"This will do, four knives, although, who the hell keeps kitchen knives in a hospital room." Clay said. He proceeded to hand out a knife each to Lela and Dustin, leaving two for himself.

"Hey Clay, why are you keeping two?" Lela asked. "I'm pretty sure I could do better than you with knives."

"Okay, first, I went to a 3-month course on melee weapons, and you got your training from a 15 minute YouTube video. Secondly, I'll be attacking anyone who sees us first, seeing as I also took a 6-month course on hand-to-hand combat training, while you lost once to a 14 year old girl." Clay finished saying, shocking Lela and making Dustin chuckle a bit.

"A simple no would've worked." Lela said, clearly annoyed.

"No it wouldn't, and you of all people should know that." Clay responded. "And Dustin quit your laughing. Even with her mediocre training, she can still kick your ass."

"How about I not fight anyone?" Dustin said, surprising both Lela and Clay. "Although I did fight troopers, I don't want to hurt living things. I also can't use anything with a blade."

"Fine." Clay said. "Give your knife to Lela." They finally proceeded to walk outside, being as quiet as possible. They went all the way to the right, reaching the end and taking a left. Afterwards, they had arrived into a large assembly room, bigger than in the Institution, with velvet colored walls, but lacking people in it. At the opposite side were three hallways. The hallway in the middle had a light originating from a room at the back and left of it. Voices were heard from this location, many of which sounded as if argument was taking place. To their right, faint footsteps were heard with whistling, all of which was getting closer. Clay told Lela and Dustin by moving his hands to go hide. Clay got to the side of the wall and pulled out his knives. As the man, a guard, entered the large room, Clay pierced his neck with one knife and pierced his right eye with the other. Drastically, the guard tried to cry for help, but was futile with him chocking on his warm blood. He later fell silent and joined the blood on the floor. Clay looked through the guard's things and found a handgun and an extra magazine. Clay wiped the blood off of the knives on the guard's clothing and hid them back. He picked the gun up and gripped it with his left hand. Clay waved his hands in a motion that told Lela and Dustin to follow him. They began to head towards the end of the hallway and then turned left. Seven doors from them to their right, two large brown doors were seen, with two small circular windows on each door, pouring out the light from the inside. As they all approached, Clay and Lela peeked through a window each, seeing the vastly large room, with chairs in both a large "c" shape with a smaller "c" inside of it, all facing towards them. The chairs, movie theater-like chairs, in red, filled the room, with a large, brown desk right smack in the middle housing a very familiar face.

"Holy fucking shit." Clay whispered. "It's Kari."

 **Tentakeel Outpost, what happened**

Progress had been significantly slower than what was expected. The materials were already available, but had been shorted out by Sheldon accidentally activating the Tesla gun. Many parts were either hard to construct or find, making this harder for the receiver/transmitter to be built. Finally, Marina, being the person who did most of the work, had to leave many times with Pearl to tell the news and stages back in Inkopolis. Edward had still helped progress advanced, but he had dropped some of the pieces off a cliff after Callie had accidentally bumped into him. Progress was then returning to normal.

"Alrighty." Marina said while building the device. "Just a few more minutes and we should be good to go."

"Just don't go dropping the pieces off the cliff again." Marie said. "I really don't want to stay here much longer."

"Don't worry kiddo!" Cuttlefish said to Marie. "I'll go watch over him and you can head back up later!"

"Watch over who?" Edward asked.

"N-Nobody." Marie said. Marie slowly backed up to a large object being covered up by a gray blanket. Edward takes notice.

"What's under there?" Edward asks.

"N-Nothing important." Marie responded. "Just pretend like it was never here."

"You know that I can't anymore, right?" Edward said. He then began to approach and Marie got in front of him to stop him.

"I prohibit you from checking." Marie said.

"Let 'em see him!" Cuttlefish said. "There's nothing wrong with it."

"Him?" Edward said. "Who are you hiding? Is he a criminal or something?"

"I don't think he qualifies as a criminal anymore." Marie said. She started to think for a bit. "You know what, I don't know why I'm even trying to hide him from you. It's not going to affect us right now." Marie then takes the blanket off, revealing a glass sphere housing a large being.

"What is that thing?" Edward asked. A voice suddenly responded to him.

"Who are you calling thing?" The being turned around, a being that looked like a very large octopus. "I am Octavio." Edward just looks at Marie with disbelief.

"You guys keep prisoners in a fucking snow-globe?" Edward says. "And he's underwater the whole time? I thought water killed y'all."

"It only kills the weak minded beings." Octavio said. "This is why I am unharmed."

"Sorry Augustus, the mind has nothing to do with you pretty much dissolving." Edward responded.

"Who the hell is Augustus? Octavio asked. "Did you not hear, I'm Octavio!"

"Octavio, Octavian. Potato-Potahto." Edward said. "Besides, why were you even put into one of these?"

"They took me against my will and killed my-"

"He tried to end Inkopolis twice already." Cuttlefish answered, cutting off Octavio.

"Oh, that makes sense." Edward said. "Wait, no it doesn't. How in the world do you fail in ending a city twice? Did you have an army?"

"The man wad a whole army and advanced weaponry at his disposal." Cuttlefish said. "I personally think that it was the number of limbs that counts. I mean 108."

"Yeah, Inkling powa!" Pearl said.

"I don't think limbs matter in who's superior." Marina commented.

"She's right." Edward said. "I mean, A human has less limbs than any of you and we can still kick ass. I mean, Clay took on three of you, I think."

"Speaking of Clay, we should leave Octavio out of this." Marina said.

"Wait, is that you Marina?" Octavio asked. "Marina Ida, the prodigy engineer? So this is the dump in which you went to hide."

"Shut up Octavio." Marina responded. "It's not like I got my ass kicked twice over."

"Alright, let's stop disrupting the eight limbed pain in the ass." Edward said while covering up Octavio's snow globe prison with the gray blanket.

"This won't stop me from talking." Octavio said.

"Yeah, but at leash we won't have to see your ugly forehead the entire time." Edward said.

"OOH, BURN!" Pearl said.

"You of all people shouldn't be saying that." Edward started to head back to the device when he stopped for a moment.

"Is it just me or do I hear slight moaning sounds?" Edward said, making everyone stop what they're doing.

"Hey, where's Charles and Heather?" Sally asked.

"Yeah, they were here a few minutes ago." Jane added on.

"I think I saw them heading to the back of the shack." Callie said. Edward walked to the back of the shack and found Charles and Heather in a passionate make out session, already semi-naked.

"Boo!" Edward said, making them both scream and fall backwards.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Heather yelled. "Haven't you heard of knocking?!"

"Only on doors." Edward responded. "And I don't see any nearby." Charles and Heather began putting their clothes back on and headed out for Inkopolis.

"Don't forget to turn off your phones!" Edward jokingly told them, getting the bird from Charles. "This just made my day better."

"You shouldn't laugh at them for that." Marie said. "Like you wouldn't do that."

"Not in public." Edward said. "And it also depends on who it is."

"Well, I know someone who can."

"Hey, I think it's working!" Marina exclaimed.

"Good job Marina!" Sheldon said, seemingly coming out of nowhere.

"AHH!" Edward said. "Where did you come from?"

"What do you mean, I never left."

"Then you're sneaky as hell." Everyone crowded around Marina as she finished tinkering with the device. Marina, on her laptop, typed in the information given from the paper that Clay left on her digital map. A few seconds later, a dot appeared on the map of Marina's computer, about 30 miles away from them.

"Holy shit Marina, you're a goddamn genius." Edward said.

"T-Thanks Eddy." Marina shyly said.

"We should go get armed and bring along any other equipment that we might need." Edward said. "Hey Marie, you think that Agent 4 and 3 could join us?"

"I can go ask them if they can." Marie asked. "But would you accompany me? I don't want to go alone."

"I can go with you Marie." Callie politely said.

"Aw, thank you Callie, but I really want Edward to come with me." Marie sensually winked at Edward and began heading to the exit.

 _In Edward's mind: Marie better not want to do what I think she'll do. It's so wrong, but I ain't saying no."_

"Wait for me Marie!" Edward followed Marie to the exit. Pearl began looking around her.

"Did anyone notice what was going on?" Pearl asked everyone.

"It's pretty hard not to." Marina said. "She's got a cru-ush!"

"But isn't that kind of weird?" Pearl asked again. "I mean, not the same race, not even close!"

"Looks like race didn't stop them." Cuttlefish added. "But I'm not sure if Ed noticed."

"I'm sure he did." Jane said. "He'd need to be unbelievably stupid to not notice."

"And blind too." Sally added. "Marie even winked at him, and not like a friend would."

Clay, Lela, and Dustin continued to look through the round windows, hearing the entire conversation in the room as well.

"How the hell is Kari alive?" Clay quietly asked.

"Better question, why is she alive?" Lela asked.

"Even better question, who is Kari again?" Dustin asked.

"The crazy bitch who probably started all of this." Clay answered.

"Oh, that bitch." Dustin said.

"Wait, how many bitches do you know-actually don't tell me." Clay said.

"Oh, but I would like to know." Kari said from inside the room, with her voice being muffled by the doors and her distance from it. "I want to know who the other bitches are, Dustin." Clay kicked the doors open and aimed the handgun at Kari.

"But first, I would like you to answer some of my questions." Clay proceeded to take one step forward. "Lets start with an easy one: What is this place?"

"Easy answer." Three soldiers, each with their rifles aimed at someone's back, appeared behind them in the hallway, and two more soldiers appeared next to Kari. "This will be the grave that you three will be sharing."


	27. Chapter 25: Unexpected Expectations

Edward and Marie are seen arising from the sewer drain in Inkopolis. Few Inklings and Octolings are in the square, but all pay no attention to them both, despite Edward having little camouflage to not appear as a human. Marie tugs on Edward's left arm and begins to pull him out of the city.

"Just where exactly do 3 and 4 live?" Edward asked, with a hint of worry in his tone.

"They're just outside the city limits of Inkopolis." Marie answered. "It won't be long." They continue to walk until reaching a neighborhood of houses. Marie points to a house seven houses from them.

"That's where 3 lives." Marie then points to a house directly across from it. "And that's where 4 lives."

"They live awfully close to each other don't they?" Edward says. "Are they really close or something?"

"Well" Marie says, grinning just enough for Edward to notice. "lets just say that they like to be up close and personal to each other Mentally _: But not like us in a few minutes."_ Edward looks at her, slightly concerned and exited at the same time. He then gets a thought into him.

" _Hold up."_ Edward thinks. _"I remember Sheldon telling me that they live in apartments, and that they were distant from each other, both physically and socially."_ Edward then sees Marie grab some house keys, only to put them away a second later. _"And if this is their house, why does Marie have house keys to them?"_

"Oh, and you may be wondering what the keys are for." Marie says, as if reading Edward's mind. "3 and 4 gave me one just in case I needed anything from their house. I'm going to grab something from 3's house real quick." Marie tugs again on Edward's arm, but Edward stays in place. Marie pulls again, but Edward still doesn't move. Marie, now slightly impatient, begins to tug on him even more, making the scene look slightly cartoonish-like.

"Why aren't you moving?" Marie asks. "Come on!"

"This is 3's house, and I'm not going in without 3 telling me that I can." Edward says. "Besides, you won't take long, right?"

"Stop being a baby and _come on_ " Marie says again pulling on Edward's arm, managing to pull him this time. They eventually get to the front steps and Edward moves to the right side of the porch. Marie looks at him in skepticism.

"Why are you standing there?" Marie asks. "The door is this way, not there."

"I'll just wait here." Edward answers. Marie panics slightly, leaving her mouth slightly open.

"I-I will need your help to get something down for me." Marie says. _"And I'll get something up for you." Marie thinks._ "It's in a really high shelf and we lost the step-ladder." Edward rolls his eyes and takes a breath from his nose.

"Alright, but we better not take long. I find it rude of me to enter someone's house uninvited." Marie rolls her eyes at him and then proceeds to slowly open the door, letting an audible creak be heard. Edward reluctantly goes inside and quickly looks around. The atmosphere and decoration immediately told Edward that this wasn't Agent 3's house.

"Stay right here Edward." Said Marie. She then began to climb the stairs to the second floor.

 _Mentally: "Oh, I thought Marie was really going to do some shit to me. Better not keep my guard down, just in case."_ Upstairs, the sound of things tumbling down and falling is heard. The rapid opening and closing of drawers is also heard.

"H-Hey Ed, can you come help me?" Marie asks from upstairs. Edward climbs up the stairs and heads towards the room. Edward slowly opens the door and immediately gets pulled inside, with the door getting shut instantly. Edward is tightly hugged by Marie who goes in and kisses Edward passionately. Edward knows this is unbelievably wrong but continues anyways. 15 seconds pass until their lips separate, being connected still with a thin string of saliva. Marina slowly backs up but Edward pulls her towards him and they continue the make-out session for a while longer. Marie begins to heat things up by pushing Edward onto the bed and begins to remove her clothes. Edward comes to his senses and realizes what he's doing.

"W-W-Wait! W-We're not suppose t-to do this!" Edward stuttered. "It's not right." Marie smirked, begins to take her bra off, and began to close in on him when all of the sudden, the sound of the front door being opened was heard.

"Hey Marie, have you seen my baseball bat?" Agent 3 said, barely being heard by Edward and Marie.

"Oh shit!" Marie says quietly, quickly getting re-dressed. Edward pushes her off of him and stands up. "What is she doing in my house?"

"Wait your house?!" Edward says. "You said it was 3's house!"

"Shut up, now I need you to hide." Marie said. Edward thought for a moment and had an idea.

"Go downstairs and talk to 3." Edward said. "I'll hide somewhere." Marie gives him the thumbs up and begins to go downstairs. Edward quickly goes to the window in the room and quietly opens it.

"I ain't doing this shit." Edward said to himself. He then began to climb out of the window and failed, falling face first on the ground. He got up, with grass and dirt in his mouth, and sprinted away, spitting the gunk in his mouth in the process. He ran for a while the same way from where they came, and began to think about what had just happened.

 _Mentally: "I can't believe I almost fucked a squid!"_ Edward thought. _"I mean... she was pretty hot and-NO! Stop saying that shit, she's a squid, remember. A very hot squid."_ Edward began to feel a bit sad, then began to get angry at himself.

" _Wait, did I seriously stop a hot celebrity from fucking me? Man, even if she was a squid, she looks really human, so it's not as weird. Goddammit, why did I leave."_ Edward looks back, now being around a few hundred feet from the house, and sees Agent 3 leave the house, with Marie going back inside.

"I should head back." Edward said. "Actually, it would be hard to explain to her that I ran away from her and now want to fuck her, so no. But I do wonder how long it'll take her to notice that I ran away." Edward jogged away, still thinking over the situation.

The soldiers, now aiming at each of their heads, pushed them slightly forwards inside the room. Clay, while in the greatest danger of them all of getting shot, still aimed his pistol straight at Kari.

"Drop the damn gun." Said one of the soldiers. "Drop it, or you'll drop with it." Clay didn't respond.

"Clay, drop it. Now." Lela fearfully said. "It's not worth it." Clay keeps looking at the two soldiers in the front, and notices that they're both distracted, so he quickly aims his gun to the soldier to the left of Kari and shoots him in the head, all while turning around and ducking at the same time. The soldier aiming at Clay, being caught off guard, fires the automatic gun, but manages to kill the other soldier to the right of Kari when Clay pushed the rifle away. Clay then breaks the soldier's nose by striking him with his handgun, successfully knocking him to the ground. At the same time, Dustin goes into his squid form and Lela pushes the rifle away from her head, making the soldier miss his shots. That soldier then gets knocked down by Dustin uppercutting him. The last soldier aims at Dustin, but gets a bullet through his head from Clay before he could fire a shot at Dustin. Clay quickly looked at where Kari was, but at the time he managed to see her, she had already disappeared.

"Is everyone alright." Clay asks Lela and Dustin.

Lela says "Yeah, just a little-"

"Uhnng." Says the soldier with the broken, bloody nose on the floor. Lela looks at him, lifts his head up, and snaps his neck in a quick movement. Blood starts to leave his body through his mouth, nearly reaching Lela's shoes.

"Anyways' I'm fine." Lela then looks at Dustin. "And so does Dustin."

"Y-Yeah, I'm good." Dustin replies. "I think it's best we move out." Multiple marching footsteps are heard getting closer.

"Might be the best thing to do." Clay tells them. "The footsteps sound like reinforcements." They all begin to run out, each picking up a rifle and ammunition. They decide to ambush the marching soldiers instead by hiding around the corner and waiting to shoot the unsuspecting soldiers. After a bit, they all aim their rifles at them and unload their magazines on the soldiers. The soldiers try to retaliate, but most were killed before having a chance to do so. Clay steps out a bit too much, but doesn't think much of it. They finish firing, thinking all the soldiers are dead. Suddenly, from the pile of bodies, a lethally wounded soldier fires a few rounds at Clay's chest, knocking Clay to the ground. Dustin immediately fires at the soldier, finishing him off.

"CLAY!" Lela screams, running towards him. She lifts his head and rests it on her lap. Lela begins to tear up slightly and hugs Clay's head. "Why did they have to kill you?!"

"I'm not dead y'all." Clay says. Both Lela and Dustin's jaws drop in seeing that Clay is well.

"Wait, how?" Dustin asks, still in shock. "You got shot?! You got shot a lot!"

"Chill man, it was this Kevlar thing my parents gave me." Clay responded. " Looks like their over-protection actually worked for once, although I'm surprised myself that I survived that shit." Clay looks down at where he was shot, not looking as injured as he thought. "You guys over-react too much."

"Does it...not hurt you?" Lela asks. "I mean Kevlar or not, the bullets still hurt."

"Eh, only a little." Clay says. He stood up and grabbed his rifle again, reloading it in the process. "Well, we can't understand what they're saying and need to know what they're doing, so there's only one person that can help."

"And who would you suppose that be?" Dustin asked.

"Li'l old Kari." Clay says. "She's the perfect person for this."

"Have you seen what shit she's done?" Lela asked. "What makes you think she'll help us?"

"Oh, she'll have to help us." Clay says, with his voice slowly sounding more sinister. "That is, if she doesn't like torture." They all begin to look through the bodies of the soldiers and Clay finds a grenade and a map of the building on one of them. In the map it shows the building they're in as a 4 story building, having but one of the floors on the surface. Clay takes the map with him and tells the rest to follow him back to the room. They all look behind where Kari was standing and see a faint outline of a door, slightly open. They begin to approach the door and open it, revealing a dimly lit tunnel, leading to a solitary door at the end. They start walking to the door at the end of the hallway. Once reaching it, Clay opens the door, but not before grabbing the grenade he picked up and pulling the pin.

 **Another Unknown Location:**

 _Manufacturing stage has been completed..._

 _Moving troops to armament compartment..._

 _Setting target and friendly detection system..._

 _Initializing Biological Stage..._

 _Entity X production initializing..._

 _ETA: To be determined in the near-future..._


	28. Chapter 26: Too Many Questions

Clay quickly threw the grenade into the room and jumped to the floor, predicting the incoming bullets. The grenade detonated a moment later, making heard the sound of things crumbling over after the initial explosion. Clay stood up after it all became silent again.

"I knew that was a trap." Clay told Lela and Dustin. "How stupid does she think we are?" Clay, with the rifle in hand, opens the door cautiously, revealing the room to be a storage room of sorts. What previously stood here was now replaced by the bodies ripped apart by the grenade. Clay took the map out and looked at it. He began to look around it and eventually found out that the room they had just left had no hidden hallway.

"Looks like the map won't help us here." Clay said. "We'll have to go forwards blindly now." They began looking around, seeing if there was any other passage. Dustin eventually found a lever hidden in a random vase, after accidentally breaking it.

"Hey, look at this." Dustin said. "I think this might help us." Lela approached the lever and examined it for a second. She then looked under the table where the vase was.

"It doesn't seem to be connected to anything." Lela said. "It might be a pro-" Lela suddenly stopped after Clay flipped the lever, opening a wall in front of them.

"The wires are in the inside of the table." Clay said. "They wouldn't make it that obvious that it actually did something." They carefully went through the new opening, with a small blimp of light at the other side. In between them and the light was pitch black darkness.

"Okay, we have to be very careful now, as there's no light in here." Lela said. "First, we should-" Lela stopped talking again after Clay shined a flashlight through the tunnel. "Where did you get a flashlight?" Lela asked.

"I picked it off of one of a blown up soldier." Clay responded. "And this flashlight must be really tough to survive an explosion like that." They walked through the now visible tunnel, revealing the barren stone bricks, which looked like the ones used in Medieval castles. They eventually reached the source of the light; a lonesome lamp on the left side on them, revealing another hallway to their left. Clay peeked to the other side and saw another beacon of light separated by darkness yet again. The only difference about this beacon of light is that it was actually another large room.

"Come on." Clay commanded. "There's another room at the end."

"There's something very wrong about this." Dustin said. "I feel like we're heading for something that we shouldn't see."

"Then we have to see it if we shouldn't." Clay answered. "I would prefer that I suffer the consequences of laying my eyes upon it than for someone else to do so. If y'all want to stay back here until I give the all clear, you can."

"I'm going with you." Lela said. "If you die, I'll die by your side."

"I prefer not dying, so I'll h-hang around here." Dustin said. "Besides, I can warn you if anyone tries to sneak on us from behind."

"Well then Lela, let's go." Clay said, leaving behind Dustin in the small area of light. Clay turns on his flashlight again, having the same stone bricks on the walls, but this time containing long scratch marks, scratch marks that look as if they were made only mere minutes ago. Lela and Clay looked at each other in concern over the scratch marks, making them both hold onto their rifles tightly. They soon reached the room, large and fancy enough to house royalty. Footsteps were heard from behind them, making both Clay and Lela aim their rifles behind them.

"Woawoawoa! It's me, Dustin." Dustin said, crouching down. "Don't shoot!"

"What the hell Dustin?" Lela said. "We told you to stay back until it we gave the all clear. We nearly turned you into Swiss Cheese!"

"S-Sorry. I-It's just that I heard voices speaking from the storage room." Dustin said. The sound of the wall entrance opening was faintly heard. The voices, speaking still an unknown language, began to grow nearer. Clay held his rifle even tighter.

"Y'all stay behind me." Clay said. "I'm just going to ask them a few questions about where we can find Kari." They all began walking back to the lamp. Clay then turned the corner and pointed his rifle at the darkness.

"STAND DOWN! ANSWER OR I WILL SHOOT!" Clay yelled at the darkness. Lela grabbed Clay's flashlight and shined it at the tunnel, revealing two young soldiers, both unarmed. The soldiers were really young, maybe 14 or 15 years of age. Both Clay and Lela looked at them perplexed, as they never saw them in the Institution.

"Who are you?" Clay asked, with assertion still in his voice. "What are your names?" The two boys spoke to each-other in the unknown language, with fear clearly being felt from their voices.

"Do you speak English?" Clay asked. "Español? Français? Deutsche? Italiano?"русский?"The boys looked at them in equal perplexion, looking as if they have never heard of any of those languages. One of them attempted to say something.

"H-hep-h-help" Said one of them. Lela grabbed Clay's map and showed it to them. The boys began to study it and just nodded. Lela circled her finger around the entire map and then pointed it at the ground. The boys nodded again.

"I think that we should take them." Lela said to Clay. 'They can help us navigate the entire building. Lela motioned her hand to them to follow. They all went back to the room and Lela showed the boys the map again. They then pointed at a small spot in the map.

"It looks like this is the room." Lela said. Clay looked at the spot to where the boys pointed.

"Seriously?" Clay said. "This room is extremely large and for it to be that small in the map?"

"Well." Lela said. "The larger rooms might be for something far greater, and possibly far more dangerous." Footsteps were heard in front of them in a hallway with a right turn. The two boys immediately ran towards the sound making Clay draw his rifle at them, as if to take a shot. The boys turned the corner, and immediate gunfire was heard, being fired from inside the hallway, painting the wall and floor in the blood and guts from the boys. More footsteps were heard running towards them.

"Get ready to shoot these pieces of shit." Clay said, aiming his rifle at the hallway. Lela and Dustin proceeded to do the same.

Edward had been running for a while until finally reaching the entrance to Tentakeel Outpost. He entered it and sat on the couch to catch his breath immediately after reaching Tentakeel Outpost. Edward looked around him and only saw Marina and Callie, who were standing near the cabin with the device.

"Hey, where is everyone?" Edward said. "Are they getting their things to go look for Clay?"

"Yeah." Marina said. 'They all agreed to meet up here in about an hour. Pearlie went to get something to transport everyone there. Speaking of which, where are your things and why are you panting?"

"Yeah, and Where's Marie?" Callie asked. "She went with you didn't she?"

"Oh y-yeah, there were just some...complications with her."

"What kind of complications?" Callie asked. "Did something happen to her?"

"No." Edward answered. "She's fine, she's just-uh...a-all you need to know is that she'll be back soon." Edward turned around and pretended to be relaxed. Callie and Marina sat next to him, with Callie being really close to him.

"I know what happened." Callie said, smirking at him. "She tried to do it, right?"

"I-I have no idea what you're t-talking about." Edward said. "We just had some i-issues."

"Come on!" Callie said. "Everyone knows she liked you!"

"I didn't." Marina said.

"Uh, now that I remember, she told me to keep it a secret." Callie said. "Oops! Just don't tell her that I told you Marina."

"No problem Callie." Marina said.

"How about we try not to talk about this." Edward said. He tr=ried to stand up, but was pushed back down by Callie.

"I just can't believed that you and Marie actually did it!" Callie said.

'Well-uh, you see, that's-uh the funny thing..." Edward awkwardly said. "We didn't actually. Well, I didn't."

"Wait what?" Callie said. "Really?" Edward started to feel and look ashamed, enough to make Callie and Marina notice.

"Well, did she say anything after saying no?" Marina asked. "Maybe she doesn't feel-"

"I ran out of her house after 3 got in." Edward quickly said. Callie and Marina looked at him wide-eyed.

"Are you kidding me?" Callie said. "That's not a very nice thing to do."

"Well, I did tell her no, but she continued, and now that I think about it, I should've kept going."

"Well now you're pretty much screwed." Callie said. "Marie's not going to take that lightly."

"Are you sure?" Edward asked. "Maybe she'll make an exception for me?"

"No, in fact, you might have to stay away from her for a bit. She can get pretty crazy, and not in the good way." Callie said. "And just out of curiosity, why did you not want to, then want to now?"

"I mean, we are two completely different species, one of which should be dead." Edward said. "But if we were suppose to be a completely different species, then why are we attracted to each other? I mean, very, very, very few humans are attracted to chimpanzees like that, the closest related to humans, and for me to like a humanoid squid thousands of years in the future is a bit weird. So, maybe there's a reason for me to like Marie." A sound was then heard coming from the entrance.

It was Marie, with Agent 3. Agent 3 passed through them quickly and headed to the other kettles. Marie angrily glanced at Edward and went inside the cabin.

"I'm sorry that I didn't want to fuck you!" Edward yelled, making both Marina and Callie laugh. Marie then came out of the cabin with her umbrella and walked towards Edward. Edward stood up at began walking towards her. Marie then whacked Edward in the face with the umbrella.

"YOU BITH!" Marie screamed while getting ready to hit Edward again. Edward began to run from her and Marie gave pursuit. They both began to run in circles, with Edward constantly apologizing and Marie yelling. This kept going on for a few minutes as Marina and Callie just watched, laughing in the process. Marie eventually got Edward cornered and slowly approached him.

"Don't kill me!" Edward said. Marie closed in and kissed his left cheek before going back into the cabin. Edward just stood there, in shock and confusion over what had just happened.

"This shit is messing with my mind." Edward said.

"Well, I don't know what all of that was about." Callie said. "Just keep an eye out for her, as she might be trying to trap you." Edward slowly walked towards the cabin, with Edward questioning his every step. As Callie watched, she began to think about something.

" _I just hope that Clay doesn't react like that. I really hope he doesn't."_ Callie then stood up.

"Hey Edward." Callie said. "Can I ask you something?"

"Uh, sure." Edward responded. He walked towards her, happy that he has an excuse to not talk to Marie yet. "What's up?"

"This might be a weird question, but do you think that Clay would like me?"

"What would I know?" Edward responded. "Although, he's always been concerned specifically about you, so it's not far-fetched. All I can say is that he probably feels just like you, but don't think that's 100% correct." Edward continued to walk to the cabin, leaving Callie to think.

"I should've left with Pearlie." Marina said to herself. "This is all to weird." She kept on tweaking the device to see if she can get the device to do anything that might help them and Clay.

 _ **Warning! Entity X has escaped!**_

 _ **Immediate lock-down procedure is now active!**_

 _ **Stay away from Entity X at all costs!**_

 _ **Entity X is -*static***_


	29. Chapter 27: The Prevention Part 1

Edward is now outside of the cabin, reluctant to enter.

"Why are you being such a pussy, just go inside and...do something to fix this shit." Edward says to himself. He looks back and notices that Callie's attention was now to Marina tinkering with the device. He smiles a bit, knowing that there won't be a witness in case he fucks up something. He knocks on the door and waits for a response. There is none. He knocks again, and says Marie's name.

"What." Marie responds.

"C-Can I come in." Edward says. "I need to talk to you." There is no response after that, in which Edward decides to let himself in. He slowly opens the door and peeks inside before going inside. Inside, Edward sees Marie sitting on a chair, quietly sobbing while using her umbrella to hide her teary face. Edward quietly approaches her, as if he were to scare her.

"W-Why are you h-here." Marie asks through her tears. "G-Get out. I want t-to be a-alone."

"Marie." Edward says. "I'm sorry for me not wanting to-" Edward gets interrupted by Marie's umbrella covering his lips.

"It's not that." She says. "It's the fact that you ran away and left me to explain the situation to 3."

"S-She saw me run away?" Edward asks.

"Yes." Marie responds. "And t-that made me realize how m-much you hate me."

"W-What?! No, no, I don't hate you." Edward hugged her afterward. Marie then pushed him away and got up.

"It's too late for that." She said. Marie began to walk to the door and left. Edward, now alone in the cabin, sat down on the chair that Marie was sitting, and began to reflect over himself.

"How am I going to fix this." Edward told himself. "I need to show her that I don't hate her. Something that shows how much I care about her."

Outside, Marie makes her way to Callie and Marina, wiping her tears off of her face in the process.

"How's the device going?" Marie asks them.

"It's ready." Marina answers. "I'm just seeing if this thing I added will help."

"What thing?" Marie asks.

"This." Marina enters some code onto her laptop, bringing the device to life. The location of Clay is shown, with the building he's in as well; A large building mostly underground. Marina types some more, showing bright red spots all over the image.

"What do the spots mean?" Callie asks.

"The red spots show energy readings." Marina responds. "The more red there is, the more energy is in that particular area."

"Well that looks like a lot of energy to me." Marie comments. "But what is it being used for?"

"It's probably needed to power heavy machinery." Marina responds. "But there has to be some very heavy machinery to need that much energy."

"Or maybe there's just a lot of heavy machinery that needs power." Marie says. "Either way, it must be something dangerous, and for Clay to be in all of it just makes it worse."

"It's also a very good thing that they're using a lot of energy." Marina says. "If they need that much energy to function, then if its gone, they won't be able to do much."

"And we have the Tesla gun, which can be used to do just that." Marie says.

"The only problem is that none of us can wield it without getting sick." Marina says. "Well except Sheldon."

"But he's not much of a fighter, and that's just what we'll need." Callie said. "There is only one person who could do this."

"Isn't Clay trapped though?" Marie said. "He's the only one who could do this, but we're rescuing him."

"Not him, it's Edward." Callie said, slightly smiling at Marie's disapproving smile. "It could've been Lela, but she might also be trapped with him, or worse."

"Can't Charles, 3, 4, 8, or Jane do it?" Marie said. "They're pretty bad-ass."

"They're vulnerable to the Tesla gun for long enough of exposure." Marina said. "And besides, Edward has more experience in fighting humans then we do." Marie still didn't want to send Edward to fight, but she then began to think why she didn't want Edward to go in the first place.

" _Wait, why don't I want him to go?"_ Marie thought. _"The bastard wouldn't bother me being far away, but can I live with myself if something happened to him? J-Just get him out of your head and stop worrying about him."_ Marie cleared her throat, getting Callie and Marina''s attention.

"Let's go send Edward in." Marie said. "Someone go get him."

"How about you get him while we think of the plan." Callie suggested. "And you can say anything to him if you need to." Marie put on a frown.

"Great, you know as well about what happened." Marie said. "Anyone else know?"

"M-Me!" Marina shyly said.

"This is just great." Marie said. "I'll go get him then." Marie begins to approach the cabin and opens the door.

"Hey Ed, we need you to-" Marie stops when she notices that he isn't in the cabin anymore. "Ed, stop hiding, where the hell are you?" No response came from inside. Marie began to look around the cabin, including the exterior. There was no sign of him.

"Hey Callie!" Marie yelled. "Have you seen Ed?"

"Marie, stop procrastinating." Callie said. "He's still in the cabin, he hasn't left."

"Ed isn't in the cabin anymore." Marie said. Callie got up in the concern and began to look around. "Great, where the hell could he be?" Marie asked herself.

In the outside of Inkopolis, a lonesome motorcycle is seen heading further away from Inkopolis. Edward, carrying a single rifle, communicator, and food/water, is seen riding the motorcycle. Edward begins to think to himself.

" _Still can't believe that I stole someone's motorcycle."_ Edward thought to himself. _"I'll give it back once I'm done rescuing Clay. After that, I'll ask him how I can fix this problem with Marie. Or maybe by me single-handedly doing the mission, she'll have different thoughts about me. Yeah, this plan is pretty shitty, hell, this isn't even a plan! I can't go back anymore without looking like an idiot."_ The motorcycle keeps going forward, eventually out of view.

From the hallway, soldiers appear, getting Clay to pull the trigger on his rifle. Bullets fly from the rifles of Clay, Lela, and Dustin, painting the wall behind the soldiers in deer red. Some soldiers fire aimlessly in fear, only hitting either other soldiers or the ceiling. Eventually, soldiers stop coming towards them.

"Holy shit." Clay said. "These soldiers are stupid as hell, walking straight into our bullets."

"Pretty convenient." Lela said. "Which is worrisome that these human soldiers are so stupid."

"Hey, you guys are almost extinct, right?" Dustin asked, getting nods from Clay and Lela in response. "Then why are you still killing your kind, instead of avoiding killing as much as possible."

"Well if they would try not to shoot us every five seconds, we might stop doing so." Clay answered, an answer Dustin wasn't expecting. "But what I do know is that those soldiers came from that hallway, which means that more people should be there." The all began going into the hallway and turning around the corner. They began to walk through many corridors and other hallways, eventually reaching two large metal doors. Clay approached them, causing them to open up automatically. To the other side of the doors lie a huge room below them, spanning thousands of feet to either side, all filled up with spider-like bots the size of a house. Directly in front of them, thousands of modified troopers, now looking like humanoid machines wielding Gatling guns, marched across.

"Holy...fucking...hell." Clay said, looking down at all the machinery. "They're actually going to invade Inkopolis. We need to find a way to warn everyone else." Dustin whimpered a bit at the height in which they were standing. "Don't be afraid." Clay said to Dustin. "We're only a couple hundred feet in the air."

"I ain't looking down." Dustin said.

"Whatever, but still, we need to communicate with Inkopolis." Clay said.

"But how?" Lela said. "We can't just ask someone to guide us to their communication room to warn Inkopolis about an invasion."

"Well if we can't warn them about an invasion." Clay said. "Then we'll just have to stop it."

"What?!" Lela yelled. "Us stop hundreds, possibly thousands of those things?!"

"The machines aren't armed yet, so they're vulnerable right now." Clay explained. "If we let them start the invasion, no one will be able to do much. And to be honest, I don't even think that Inkopolis has an actual army. All it would take to take over Inkopolis is but 12 of those spider-bots."

"Maybe Inkopolis is only part of their plan." Lela said. Suddenly, klaxon alarms started blaring across the large room. A voice began to relay a message, but was spoken in the unknown language.

"Clay, can't you use your cracker/translator thing?!" Lela said.

"It still needs more information!" Clay responded. "It's been gathering it since I woke up! It's almost done though, I just hope that whatever is being said isn't important!"

 _ **Actual Translation of the message:**_

 **Warning! Warning!**

 **Entity X has Escaped Containment!**

 **All In The Facility Are Recommended To Shelter In Place!**

 **All Defense Personnel To The Armament Room ASAP!**

The alarms kept on sounding for a while until they all suddenly stopped. The entire room was now oddly quiet. Crashes and gunfire was then heard in the distance, along with faint screams. They all stood there, as if a shotgun was aimed at their heads. Clay looked around once more.

"We better get the hell out of here." Clay said. "Don't know who shot or what they were shooting at, but I don't want to be the next target." Clay looks back from where they came from, and began to listen for anything that made noise.

"We should head back from where we came from." Lela suggested. Screams and gunfire was heard again, only this time it came from a distance behind them.

"No, whatever is happening, it's now behind us." Clay said. "It could be rescue, but they would've found a way to communicate with us by now. It's just too risky. I say we find a way to get down." Lela looks down and sees a long ladder reaching the bottom floor.

"Most of the building is underground." Lela said. "The exit must be on the surface, so heading down is just going back."

"These machines were built to attack _on the surface_." Clay said. "There has to be another exit on the bottom, otherwise, the machines would've been built near the surface. And once we get there, I'll hopefully have a plan to stop the invasion."

"I guess that makes sense." Lela says. "But isn't Dustin afraid of heights?" Lela then looks at Dustin and asks. "Why are you afraid pf heights? You have no bones, so falling down shouldn't be bad, right?"

"Just because they have no endoskeleton doesn't mean that they have no nervous system." Clay said. "Of course they can feel pain, especially from this height."

"How about we descend from the ladder with me being last." Dustin suggested, slightly shaky. "That way, I know that if I fall, one of you will catch me."

"Good thinking." Clay said. "Lets go then. No time to waste." Clay then motioned Lela to go first, making Lela step back a bit.

"Wait, why do I have to be first?" Lela said.

"Because you have always said "ladies first" and I have respected it every time, so _ladies first_." Lela punched him in his arm and began descending, followed by Clay. Dustin stood at the ledge, regretting every second of it.

"Looking down doesn't help you." Clay said. "Just look in front of you, and don't look back up or down. Trust me, I've been there." Dustin took a breath of air and began to climb down. They all climbed down and reached the floor after a few minutes. Clay looked in front of them and saw a wide ramp heading upwards.

"Aha!" Clay said. "There's the exit. We just need to head up there and we'll be out of-" Clay was suddenly interrupted by a mutilated body of a soldier falling in front of them.

"What the-" Clay said and looked up, seeing 3 soldiers fall to their death.

"RUN!" Clay yelled, picking up the corpse's pistol. They all ran to the exit, ignoring the gunshots and screams behind them. After 15 minutes, they took a pause, now being a few hundred feet from the closed gate.

"Why-are-w-we stopping." Dustin said through his panting. "W-We're not s-safe yet."

"We're safer right here." Clay answered, looking at 12 robotic guards at the gate, wielding a rifle in each hand and shoulder. From far behind them an ear-piercing, high-pitched screech was heard, getting the attention from the robotic guards. The robotic guards began to approach them. Clay, noticing the guards approaching, grabbed the pistol from his holster and held it to his chest. Lela looked around her and noticed a large, green box. Lela began to opened it as quickly and quietly as possible and found three hand grenades. She handed two to Clay. Clay took the pin out from one of them and threw it behind the guards, detonating and destroying five of them. The robotic guards began to blindly fire at the general direction of Clay. Lela took the pin of her grenade and threw it behind the remaining robotic guards, destroying all but one. The remaining one got in sight of them, but got shot in the head by Clay's pistol.

"Good thing these things were as stupid as their creators." Clay said. "Now we can continue." They walked for a bit until Clay's earpiece began to transmit a voice.

 _Cl-C-ay, I-I'ts me-E-Edw-rd._ Clay began tapping on the earpiece.

 _Clay, can you hear me? It's me, Edward! I'm outside, please respond!_

"Edward?!" Clay said to his earpiece, getting wide-eyes from Lela and Dustin. "How the hell are you alive and taking to me?!"

"I somehow survived a missile explosion." Edward said. "And you do remember that my earpiece is linked to yours? All I needed to do is to get in range. Good thing I increased the range and-"

"Edward, it's nice and all to see you, but there is an invasion inbound for Inkopolis, and we have to stop it now before it begins!" Clay said.

"Ed's alive?!" Lela said. "I thought he was gone."

"Wait, is that Lela?" Edward asked Clay. "Yes, and so is Dustin." Clay responded. "Now as I said, we need you to alert everyone in Inkopolis about the invasion."

"Wait, did you say and invasion?" Edward asked. "These assholes couldn't even take us out and-"

"Kari is alive and they have an army that can and will take out Inkopolis in minutes." Clay responded. "They have a few hundred goddamn spider-bots the size of houses, that look like they will be armed with missiles and heavy machine guns, along with thousands of robotic soldiers with Gatling guns. I don't know why they need that many troops, but it looks like Inkopolis isn't Kari's only goal."

"Just tell me the plan and I'll try my best to help."

"Well you're in luck Edward, because I just thought of one." Clay said. "Fires, we will-" Clay was then interrupted by an Inkling-like figure 20 feet behind him charging directly at him.

 **A/N: Happy late Thanksgiving and happy shopping!**


	30. Chapter 28: The Prevention Part 2

Edward is seen outside of the large building, constantly tapping on his earpiece.

"Clay, come in! Clay!" Edward screamed st his earpiece. _"EACSHHH-"_ Is all that's heard from his earpiece. From nearby, large thunderous sounds and vibrations are heard/felt. Edward looks at the general direction of the source, but finds only barren terrain. Edward looks back at the building, ignoring the vibrations that appear to be heading away from him.

"How the hell can I get in?" Edward answered. "I think that I should probably warn everyone about the possibility of a full blown invasion." Edward says to himself while looking through his pockets. He then heads back to "his" motorcycle and takes the communicator. He begins to activate it and tries to communicate with Marina.

"Come on." Edward says. "Don't fail me now."

In Tentakeel Outpost, Charles, Heather, Agent 3, and Elena have arrived early and are seen with Callie and Marina. Marie is walking in circles thinking to herself over what to do.

"So now we have to send someone to find Edward so he can go find Clay!" Marie says. "And we don't know where he would be!"

"Calm down there Marie." Callie says. "He couldn't have gone far. Besides, there's few places where he can really go." Callie then looks at Marina and Elena who are each on their laptops typing. Suddenly they both raise their hands in excitement.

"I FOUND HIM!" Elena and Marina yell out at the same time, putting their hands down.

"Well, where is he?" Marie asks.

"He's back in the institution!" Elena says confidentially. Marie gives her a doubting look, along with Marina and Callie.

"Didn't we struggle to get people _out_ of the Institution." Charles chimed in. "And besides, that place is pretty much both uninhabitable and barren of life."

"Not only that, but we went to check up on the Institution before coming here." Heather commented. "We would've seen the bastard coming our way." Heather looks towards Marina. "Where do you think Ed's at?" Marina then looks back at her laptop.

"He's...at...the square?" Marina says.

"Are you telling me or asking me?" Heather says. "Because I don't."

"If he was in the square I would've seen him." Agent 3 says. "Hell, there was almost nobody in there. They were all probably playing turf."

"So basically, nobody knows where he is?" Callie asks, getting no's from Elena and Marina.

"I might have an idea." Charles said. "But I need to know if anything happened before I got here. And when I mean anything, mean even the smallest detail." Callie and Marina immediately look at Marie. Marie gives them a disapproving face, getting Charles to notice the reaction.

"And looks like I struck gold." Charles says. "So what happened?" Marie gives a reluctant sigh and begins to explain what happened, at least what happened to her. "It began when Edward and I..." Marie began to tell what happened when she brought Edward to her house and with Edward running away. She then began to tell what happened when Edward tried to apologize. Callie and Marina pitched in their side when they talked to Edward about the incident as well. During the entire explanation, Agent 3 felt very awkward at having to hear this once more. Heather tried to contain her laughter through every second of the explanation, with Charles remaining pretty much unaffected. Elena was oddly enough been blushing through the whole explanation.

"And that's what happened." Marie said. "Do you think you can find out where Edward could be."

"He went to get Clay in order to try to impress you." Heather said, getting Charles to look at her.

"I was gonna say that." Charles said.

"You said it, _was_." Heather responded. "But now, we have to send someone else, along with the Tesla thing."

"Well, we could send Sheldon with the Tesla gun." Marina said. "He'll just give it to Edward and have him fight with it. I mean, I'm pretty sure there will be little resistance, way less that in the Institution, that's for sure."

"Well then." Marie says. "I'll go call Sheldon and tell him to get the Tesla gun." Marie takes her phone out and begins to dial Sheldon's number.

"Hey Marie, what do you need?" Sheldon says to Marie through the phone.

"We need you to bring out the Tesla gun and something to take it to Edward." Marie says.

"Take it to Edward?" Sheldon asks. "Isn't he with you guys?"

"Apparently, he tried to single-handedly do this with no aid or even a decent weapon." Marie says. "We'll need you to take the Tesla gun to Edward so he can proceed with the plan."

"All-right!" Sheldon says. "I'll go take the Tesla gun to the van and I'll call you back when I'm done."

"Sounds like a plan." Marie says. "Bye." She hangs up and puts her phone back in her pocket. Marie looks at Marina, who is rapidly typing at something, resulting in noise coming from the transmitter/receiver device they've built.

" _H-Hey D-dou-"_ Marina turns some knobs on the device and the audio begins to sound clearer.

"Is anyone there? Marina, are you there?" Edward says through his communicator.

"Edward, where are you?" Marina asks through the device.

"I'm already at Clay's location and could talk to him, along with Lela, but I can't find a way to get in yet. And I have a very important message from Clay." Edward says.

"Lela and Clay are alive?!" Marina says, getting everyone else to cheer, especially Callie.

"Don't celebrate just yet." Edward says. "Clay has told me that there is a massive invasion to Inkopolis that's about to happen unless Clay can do something about it. He says that they have hundreds of house-sized spider-bots, probably armed with guns and missiles, along with thousands of robotic soldiers. He actually had a plan, but the sound went out. I can't talk to him right now." Everyone is wide-eyed at what Edward has told them.

"I-Invasion?" Marina fearfully asks.

"Yep, and I am more than sure that we have nothing to stop that." Edward says. "The Tesla gun is not nearly enough and unless someone can pull an army, air force, and missile trucks out of their ass, we're screwed."

"So, what do you suppose that we should do?" Marina asks. "Should we stay here just in case or send all that we have there?"

"I would say to stay there and try to get anything and anyone that can help." Edward says. "If only the Institution was safe, you could look there. I'm sure the Defense group had some secret weapon hiding, but I still think rebels are there." A few seconds of silence passed as Marina began to think.

"Uhh, Marina, you there?" Edward asks.

"I think I have an idea." Marina states. "But I'm going to need for you to end the transmission, as I will need to access something else."

"Okay then." Edward says. "Call me back when you can then." Edward ends the transmission. Edwards gets back on the motorcycle and begins to search for a way inside.

"So what was your idea?" Marie asks Marina. "And why did you need him to hang up?"

"Honestly, I didn't want Ed to hear the plan, as he would immediately disagree with it, so I told him to end the transmission." Marina said. "The plan was to send someone back into the Institution and try to look for the "black room", or something like that."

"What's that?" Marie asks.

"When I talked to Clay back in the Institution, he told me of a highly secret weapons testing/containment room. Clay said that if he had the permission to do so, he would've showed me the room. Bu instead, all he told me was that the room was the middle hallway of the "restricted" hallways and the code was." Marina looks in her laptop. "12151919177619691945"

"I should write that down." Marie says. "I'm not going to remember that at all. Speaking of which, why did he necessarily have to tell you all of this information?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Marina answered. "But my guess was that maybe Clay felt that something like this would happen and gave us this information. Albeit not the best decision for Clay to give away that kind of information to people he just knew, I'm glad he did." Marie nods while grabbing a little notepad and a pen.

"Alright, can you say it again?" Marie asks. "I can actually write the code down."

"12151919177619691945" Marina repeats.

"I wonder if any of these numbers mean anything." Marie says while looking at her written numbers.

"When Clay told them to me, he spaced-out each numbers in groups of four." Marina says. "Maybe they're important human dates or something."

"Well, what matters is that this is the correct code to the room." Marie says. She walks towards Charles, who was resting and leaning against the cabin, and moved his shoulder to get his attention.

"Hey Charles, you think that you can go to the Institution and look for this "black room" to see if there's anything that could help in case of an invasion?" Marie asks. Charles gives her a "I don't give two shits about it" face.

"Do you really think this is a good idea?" Charles asks. "This all sounds like a lot of bull."

"It does." Marie responds. "But we can't just stand here and hope that we don't get fucked by an invasion. And besides, it doesn't hurt to check."

"It would most likely kill me to check. Especially since I have no human gun to fight against ." Charles says.

"You can use the Tesla gun, along with the protection suit that Sheldon has." Marie responds.

"You saw that the suit didn't do shit in helping." Charles says. "In fact, I think that this was all a ruse by Clay and Edward. I'm just glad that they'll probably die with the damn-" Charles gets smacked in the face by Marie's umbrella, knocking him to the floor.

"Don't you ever say that shit ever...again." Marie says while walking away. Heather, who was in the opposite side of them, began to charge Marie.

"You bitch!" Heather yells, making Marie turn her head around, and punched Marie in her face, also knocking her to the ground. Heather jumped at Marie, who was still on the floor, and tried to hit her again, but was stopped by Charles holding her arms back. In fury, Heather swings one of her arms to Charles's face, knocking him back, near the edge.

"No, wait!" Heather yells, immediately getting up at the sight of Charles nearly falling over. Marie lifts herself up and brushes herself off. Marie then looked at Heather, who was frantically hugging Charles and constantly apologizing to him. Charles, on the other hand, looked pretty much stoned, as if nothing had happened.

"S-Sorry." Marie says to Charles.

"No, it's our fault." Charles answers. "I shouldn't have said that and Heather shouldn't have punched you." Heather just looked at Marie in tears, not saying a word. Marie was immediately grabbed by Callie.

"Marie! Are you okay?" Callie asks to Marie, immediately looking at Heather. "You pieces of shit better get the fuck out of here before I tear all your fucking limbs apart!" Marie stares at Callie, completely surprised over Callie's language. Charles and Heather quietly approached the exit and left.

"And don't fucking return!" Callie finally yells, now beginning to cry. In the back, Agent 3 had just been witnessing what was going on.

'We're starting to fall apart before any real threat is even here!" Agent 3 says. "We really need to keep ourselves together, otherwise we'll all be together in our graves."

"She's right." Elena says. "If we begin to fall apart, Inkopolis and the humans may soon follow."

"I-I should go a-and apologize." Callie tearfully says. "What I-I did was w-wrong."

"Give them some time." Marie responds. "They probably want to be left alone."

"We should all relax for a bit." Marina says.

Clay is knocked onto the ground, losing his handgun in the process. The creature, a neon green female Inkling with deep red eyes wearing a beige suit, jumped towards Lela and Dustin, knocking both down at the same time. Lela kicks the Inkling and Dustin punches her too, having little effect on the Inkling. A gunshot is heard, with a hole appearing in the right side of the Inkling's chest, knocking her down and making a neon green puddle in her place. Clay places the handgun back in his holster and approaches Lela and Dustin. Suddenly from the puddle, the Inkling jumps back up, uppercutting Clay and sending him 16 feet back. The Inkling goes back into her puddle and jumps back up again, mid-air kicking Lela and Dustin in one swoop, bringing them to the floor once more and knocking both unconscious. The Inkling begins to speak in the same unknown language but begins to adjust her voice, as a radio does hen changing stations, eventually speaking perfect English.

"So you were the troublemaker everyone's been talking about." The Inkling said. Clay began to slowly reach for his holster.

"Don't bother grabbing your gun again." The Inkling said. "All it does is piss me off." Clay moves his hand instead to the side opposite from the holster, grabbing something else, and looks directly at her.

"What's your name?" Clay asks.

"My code-name is Entity X." The Inkling said. "But you can call me X"

"Well X." Clay says while a faint ping is heard. "Call me a phone booth, because your time is up." Clay throws his remaining grenade to the left of X, being a bit away from Lela and Dustin, as to avoid damaging them. X immediately pounces towards Clay, effectively reaching him as the grenade detonates, blowing up a part of the wall nearest to it. A large pole from the roof falls down, hitting and knocking down a door on the wall near Clay, revealing an Electrical Room, now having broken electrical wires flinging around in the room. Clay gets flung back by X who then tries to snap Clay's neck, but gets shot in the head by Clay, effectively getting her off of him. Clay then counts how many bullets he has left: three. X lunges once more at Clay, only this time Clay reacts fast enough and barely dodges her. X then crashes to the floor, but swiftly gets back up and charges again. Clay quickly glances up to the ceiling, having a gas canister and stockpiles of wood, and shoots the canisters. The canisters immediately detonate, collapsing part of the roof, and lighting the wood piles on fire. Clay manages to dodge X again, now resulting in the burning wood piles falling on X and crushing her. Silence soon comes over.

"There." Clay said. "That bitch is now dead. There's no possible way that she can survive-" X pounces out of the burning stockpile, bringing with her a burning piece of wood, and knocks Clay on the floor.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A BITCH?!" X says while swinging the burning piece of wood towards Clay's face. Clay manages to block and knock the burning wood out of her hand and proceeds to shoot her once more in her head to get her off.

 _Mentally: "I only have one bullet left, so I got to make it count."_ Clay then looks at the burning piece of wood and then again at the Electrical Room. _"Bingo."_ Clay grabs the piece of wood and runs to the Electrical Room.

"Hey, freak!" Clay yells. "Come get me you son of a bitch!" X immediately pounces out of her puddle of ink and knocks Clay far in the Electrical Room. X then knocks down a large cabinet to block the exit.

"Well, there's no getting out now." X says. Clay puts the burning piece of wood in front of him.

"Ha, do you really think a tiny flaming piece of wood is going to do anything?" X mockingly says.

"Fire might not do anything." Clay says. "But water might." Clay then throws the flaming piece of wood upwards towards the roof of the room, reaching the sensor in the fire sprinklers, making them sprinkle water out. X begins to slowly disintegrate as the water runs down her body. She screeches in pain.

"AHHH!" X pounces at Clay again, receiving a final bullet to her head. X falls to the ground and turns into a diluted green puddle, fading more and more until it eventually disappears.

"Finally, she's dead." Clay says to himself. "I swear, if she would've gotten back up once more, I would've let her kill me." Clay then goes to move the cabinet that was blocking the exit and gets out. He then sees that Lela and Dustin were just getting back up.

"O-Oh god, w-what h-happened?" Lela asked.

"Yeah, a-all I rememb-ber is being kicked by some girl a lot." Dustin said. "Where is she anyways, and why is there burning wood and pieces of the ceiling on the floor?!"

"Yeah, that's how much I struggled to kill her." Clay said. "All it took was fire, wood, and cheap sprinklers."

'None of that makes sense." Lela says. "Or maybe being hit in my head many times made me that daft."

After a while of going in circles, Edward gives up his search for the opening and stops where he had arrived.

"I'm never going to find that entrance." Edward says to himself. "I just don't know where it is!" Edward then kicks a large rock, getting a click sound in return.

"Huh?" Edward says. The ground begins to shake as a large entrance is revealed right in front of him.

"Finally!" Edward yells in happiness. "Wait, so I spent all this time looking for the entrance just to kick a rock to find it. Talk about lazy security. I'm surprised that no one has broken into here." Edward gets on the motorcycle and rides inside.


	31. Chapter 29: The Prevention Part 3

Edward keeps going inside the building while on the stolen motorcycle. Edward then sees Lela, Dustin, and Clay and slows down the motorcycle to a stop. Clay turns around and sees the motorcycle, slightly confused by seeing one, but instantly remembering that that was Edward.

"Hey, Ed!" Clay says. "Great to see you again! And what took you so long to get inside?"

"Hey Clay." Edward responded. "I couldn't find the damn entrance until I kicked a rock and managed to hit a button and find an entrance." Clay turns around to face Lela.

"See, I knew that there was an exit here." Clay faces Edward again. "And did you tell the rest about the possible invasion?"

"Yep." Edward said. "And did not take it well."

"Hey, can we also talk to Edward?" Lela said. "We also missed him. At least I did, I don't know about Dustin." Lela and Dustin stood up, and Lela went over towards Edward.

"I still can't believe that you're alive, even as you're in front of me right now." Edward said.

"The same goes for you." Lela responded. "By the way, you just missed some action."

"Yeah, I bet the "action" had something to do with all the burning stuff and pieces of the ceiling on the floor." Edward said. "But what even happened?"

"Some Inkling-thing attacked us and knocked Lela and Dustin out." Clay explained. "Bullets couldn't kill her, even with headshots, so I shot at some exposed canisters next to stockpiles of wood, detonating them. This brought flaming pieces of the ceiling down, which many landed on her. Finally, with a door being knocked down, I grabbed a piece of wood that was on fire and threw it near sprinklers to turn them on, melt her down, and shoot my last bullet to kill her."

"If she can survive two headshots at what I assume is point-blank, and flaming debris in free-fall, I think that water and the final bullet shouldn't have killed her." Edward said. "And still, how did she even manage to survive all of that? I'm certain that Inklings are not nearly as resilient."

"I think that she had been genetically altered with to create a near-perfect super-soldier." Clay said. "But now that I think about it, on one hand, water is their main weakness, which would be immediately dealt with by genetic engineers. On the other hand, I saw her disintegrate right beneath my eyes and heard her scream of pain while she was doing so."

"Here's my thinking." Lela jumped in. "I just think that they forgot to make her water resistant and she died."

"Let's hope so." Clay said. "Otherwise, she could find us and kill every single one of us." Suddenly, a long 5 second beep is heard through the entire building."

 _ **Why Hello Clay, Edward, Lela, and Dustin, it's your favorite girl, Kari! Looks like you managed to kill my distraction.**_

"What do you mean by distraction?" Clay said, as if speaking with the roof.

 _ **Well, lets just say that none of you guys can't pay any attention.**_

"What do you mean Kari?!" Lela screams out.

 _ **I can't say exactly why, otherwise I ruin the surprise. It'll be better when you find out for yourselves.**_

"What bullshit are you talking about?" Edward says calmer than the rest. "What surprise?"

 _ **All I can say is that it will be SHOCKing and AWEsome! Anyways, I have to go work on your "surprise". I know that you all will have a blast! Bye!**_ Two quick, consecutive beeps are heard, signaling the end of the transmission. Silence soon followed.

"What did she mean with all of that?" Dustin asked. "That made no sense, apart from that it's probably a bad thing."

"Well whatever it is, I have a feeling that it has to do with the machines that they have inside of here." Clay said. "So I say we find a way to destroy them before they destroy all of us."

"And how do you suppose we do that?" Lela asked. "I don't think that you can call in an airstrike."

"Or maybe we can." Edward commented, resulting in everyone looking at him with slight curiosity.

"What do you mean with _can_?" Dustin asks. "Can you actually call one in?"

"Don't be ridiculous." Edward responded to Dustin. "Of course I can't call in an airstrike, instead, we'll be the ones launching it."

"So are you going to launch a missile from here to...blow...up the building!" Lela pieced together. "Ed, that's genius! But, where do we find a strong enough missile to do so in here?"

"You can leave that to me." Clay said. "In fact, there is only one thing that we will need: a way to quickly get the hell out of here."

"I have a motorcycle." Edward said. "A stolen one, but still a motorcycle."

"Good, so here's the plan, to access the missiles in here, we will need to go inside this room." Clay says while pointing to the Electrical Room. "There was a computer at the very back, I just hope that it didn't get too damaged by the sprinklers or by the door being broken down. Secondly, we need to gain access to the missiles."

"Wait, how do you know that they have missiles powerful enough to destroy the entire building?" Lela asked. "And if they did, they would've just used them to destroy Inkopolis."

"Good question." Clay answered. "And to that I say, that they actually do, or at least should. The reason for this is not necessarily for just easy destruction, rather intimidation, something that Kari would do. With the massive army that they have, they will most likely plan on going beyond Inkopolis. There are more cities other than Inkopolis, at least I believe so." Clay then looks at Dustin. "Hey Dustin, are there more cities out there?"

"I-uh actually don't really know." Dustin said. "But I think there definitely should, especially since we're not the only intelligent species."

"Okay then." Clay said. "With that, they will use the missiles to intimidate other powerful cities or states to surrender in order to avoid instant annihilation, preventing important resources and time from being wasted with a land invasion. The missiles would most likely be used against difficult-to-reach places by land. The rest of the army will be used when absolutely necessary, like an alliance of armies or a counter-invasion. And to further back this up, the possible development of nuclear warheads would mean that they know resistance will be strong, and they will need a stronger reason for them to stay under submission."

"Okay, so we definitely have missiles then." Edward said. "And should we use one to take out the remaining rebels in the Institution?"

"No." Clay said. "Not only will we destroy a facility with necessary technology to survive, but it won't be necessary. With their entire command center being destroyed, their morale will be low, lowering their will to keep fighting. We would then be able to either counterattack or starve them of supplies until they either give up or die."

"Well lets get to smoking this place." Dustin said. Clay walked into the Electrical Room, being followed by everyone else. Clay went to the back of the room, avoiding the broken wires and large puddles of water. Lela and Edward stayed just behind of Clay, with Dustin not entering the water covered room. Clay eventually found a large screen to his left, with a black button on the top right of the screen. Clay clicked it, turning the screen on, oddly enough not asking for a pass-code or any sort of identification.

"Yeah, this is Kari's work alright." Clay commented. "Only she would make a computer that can access important information of the facility without any security whatsoever." Clay looked around the computer screen, struggling as everything was in the unknown language, which looked like a mixture of English, Japanese, Hindi, and possibly the Inkling language. Clay eventually got tired of guessing what each thing did and went to the settings and changed the language to English. After that, he quickly began to hack into the building's system, and found a missile launching sector. Clay then went to access it, in which it now asked for a pass-code, in which Clay easily bypassed. Clay then found that 5 cruise missiles were detected: all having a nuclear warhead loaded with a number of 20 as the yield.

"Son of a bitch, they have fucking nukes." Clay fearfully said. "But how, they shouldn't have this for a very long time. How did they manage to get it so quickly?"

"The same way that they were able to manufacture this army in months." Lela said. "At least this will be able to destroy the entire building."

"Just hope that the 20 is in kilotons and not megatons, otherwise we will all die." Clay then opened another window and began to type in some information, with text that said **"Sending...Sent"**.Immediately afterwards, Clay began the launch sequence, making it's destination its starting position. After a bit, the screen showed a message in green text:

 _ **Launch in T-5 Minutes...**_

"Now that that's done, time to get the hell out of here." Clay said. They all went out into the exit and followed Edward to his motorcycle. As they were running, Lela felt as if they were being watched by something, so she turned around behind her and saw a pair of eyes in the darkness, eyes that represented death itself.

"GUYS, THERE'S SOMETHING WATCHING US!" Lela yelled out. Everyone else looked back and saw the pair of eyes, with Clay being the only one to recognize them.

"How...the hell...are you alive?" Clay said, watching the scarred figure creep out of the darkness. "I saw you disintegrate right before my eyes."

"Haven't you heard to never trust your eyes?" X said with a devilish smile. "If I can survive fire, then why the hell would my main flaw be ignored? She then charged at them, making Edward shoot at her with his assault rifle. X kept on charging as if the bullets had no effect on her. X then pounced and tackled Clay to the ground, and tried to bite at Clay's neck. Clay kicked her off and quickly stood back up.

"Y'all run to the motorcycle while I find a way to kill her." Clay said.

"Then you might need this." Edward said. He then gave him the rifle. Clay grabbed the rifle and to his surprise saw X smiling and backing up. Clay smiled, thinking that she had somehow been intimidated out of fighting them, but he soon realize her course changing from backing away straight away from them to backing into the Electrical Room, where the launched could be stopped. Noticing this, Clay decided to charge _at her,_ not wanting the launch from being canceled.

"SHE'S TRYING TO STOP THE LAUNCH!" Clay yelled. He lifted the rifle and shot a few rounds near X to try to scare her off, but to no avail. As X entered the Electrical Room, walking straight through the puddles of water, she began to type into the computer screen, trying to stop the launch. Clay peeked into the room and shot at her head multiple times, managing to knock her to the ground, but not killing her. Clay lunged at her to keep her on the ground, but was kicked back, accidentally pressing a few buttons on the screen. Clay retaliated by smashing her face on the screen, hitting even more buttons, but she transformed into her squid form, and transformed back, uppercutting Clay, getting him to press more buttons on the screen. Suddenly, a quick beep was heard from the computer screen.

 _ **Launch Time Change Accepted**_

 _ **Launch in T-2 Minutes**_

Hearing that, Clay pushed her away and made a run for the exit, but was knocked to the floor by X grabbing onto his legs.

"If I die, we both die." X said, biting on his left leg. "Die you piece of shit!" X then bit his right leg.

"AGHH!" Clay yelled, prompting him to kick her in the face, and stomped her face into the ground, getting her to spit out neon-green ink from her mouth. Clay heard the motorcycle approaching, and got an idea. As Clay began to stand up, he noticed that X was about to pounce at him to bite him at his neck, so he grabbed one of the broken wires that was nearby, and managed to stick the wire inside her throat, getting shrieks of agony from X. She was shocked for about ten seconds, with ink rushing out of both her mouth and eyes, and fell to the ground. afterwards. As a precaution, Clay fired eight bullets to her head, causing more of her ink to cover the already neon-green ink covered floor.

"Clay, get on!" Edward yelled from the motorcycle. Clay got on the cramped motorcycle, even with Lela carrying Dustin in his squid form, and Edward sped off. When they reached the outside, Edward slightly reached out his leg near the rock, and pressed the button on it, closing the entrance door. As they got a bit further away from the building, they began to hear and feel the rumble of the cruise missiles leaving the building and taking off, reaching for the clouds. They kept on speeding away, heading in the general direction of Inkopolis. They kept going, not bothering to look back. After a while, they reached Inkopolis, passing by a stationary van in the process . They immediately went into the entrance to Tentakeel Outpost for shelter, with Edward being last, as he left the motorcycle where he found it. Clay decided to peek out of the entrance to try to see the blast. A few seconds later, a small, bright flash of light was seen near the end of the horizon. A flash of light that can outshine the sun itself: a true representation of human ingenuity and deadliness.

"Would you look at that." Clay said. "Looks very familiar doesn't it? The way we saved the Oceanics' home is the same way humanity decimated theirs. I don't know if we should be happy or terrified.

"We might as well be both." Lela added on. As the E.M.P. of the blast reached them, the lights of Inkopolis shut off for a few seconds and then turned back on. The citizens of Inkopolis were a bit spooked because of the brief blackout, but what scared everyone else was what they saw nearby. At the same time as the lights of Inkopolis flickered, large structures suddenly appeared, as if out of the blue. When the power returned, everyone got a better view of the structures, making them shriek in terror.

"Holy shit, what is that?!" Edward said, looking at the structures, which were fully armed spider-bots, with missiles and high caliber guns, and robotic soldiers wielding quad mini-guns.

"Now it makes sense." Clay said. "The thing Kari said."

"Wait, the vibrations that I felt when I got there." Edward said. "The vibrations were made by large-scale marching, and the Inkling was the distraction."

"It's the invasion."


	32. Chapter 30: Light in the Darkness

_An hour earlier..._

Callie had left Tentakeel Outpost to go search for both Charles and Heather, but they were nowhere to be found. Callie had called them, texted them, and asked people nearby if they had seen them. As she had given up, she received a phone call from Marie.

"Hey Marie, did you find them?" Callie asked Marie through the phone.

"Yes I did." Marie answered. "But they don't want to be involved in any of this anymore. Normally I would be heavily opposed to this, but seeing what they have gone through, it's very understandable. Also, we finally decided to send Agent 3 to the Institution to try to enter the "black room" or whatever it's called."

"Okay Marie." Callie said. "Wait for me so I can help in organizing the plan."

"Too late for that, we already have." Marie said. "But if you want to hear the plan and state your opinions, then come on over." Callie approached the sewer entrance and went inside. When Callie arrived, she saw Agent carrying her roller, and splat bombs. She was then equipped with a tiny camera to the top left of her head.

"And this is a thermal camera so we can see what you can't." Marina explained to 3. "And here's the thing now: your roller won't be for attacking, but for possibly breaking a door down when needed. You are going to have to be as stealthy as possible, as you won't be able to do much with the roller, except topple them over." Agent 3 gives her a face of doubt at her instructions, but then shrugs it off. Agent 3 then looks at Callie and gives her a smile.

"If you get caught and they try to kill you, abandon the mission and run." Marie said. "Knowing you, I have to tell you that, otherwise you'd end up splatted."

"I've done worse Marie." Agent 3 says to Marie. "A couple of baddies won't be much."

"A couple of unsplattable, tougher, and hardly known baddies." Marie said. Agent 3 was now ready proceeded to the exit.

"Wish me luck!" Agent 3 said before leaving to the Institution.

 _About 45 minutes later..._

Agent 3 soon enters the Institution and looks around her, allowing Marina to use the thermal camera to identify anyone inside the dark building.

"There's nobody nearby, yet there appears to be five entities in the far back." Marina said through Agent 3's communicator. "Now head straight until you reach the Assembly Room and remember the hallways Clay said to never enter?"

"Uh, yeah." Agent 3 answered quietly.

"Enter the one at the middle." Marina said. As instructed, Agent 3 walked into the Assembly Room, still looking around to allow Marina to see, and headed into the middle hallway. Agent 3's eyes widened at the fact that there were 12 doors, all looking the exact same.

"Hey Marina, which door is it?" Agent 3 asked. "Checking all 12 will not be fast or as quiet.

"Ah, I don't know." Marina said. "Keep walking forwards and look around to see if there is a door that has a keypad or something like that." Agent 3 walked around, checking all 12 doors for a keypad. None of the doors had one. Agent 3 thought of opening a few, but the doors looked old and rusty, which made her think that they would make noise when opening. When she reached the very end of the hallway, she saw a small sparkle in the corner of her eye. She turned around and looked at the source: a very dim keypad, with a pitch black door harboring it.

"Marina I found it!" Agent 3 said. "But um, the keypad has only human numbers. You didn't give me a numbers translator of sorts. How am I suppose to know which number means what?" Marina thought for a second and then grabbed a sheet of paper.

"I know what to do." Marina said. "Look at the keypad and try to tell me what the first number at the top left looks like, and then the number at the bottom right."

"It looks like a line." Agent three said. "And the other one looks like a circle with a line at the bottom."

"Okay, Clay told you that the top left number was the smallest whole number after zero, and the bottom right had the largest whole number before being double digits." Marina told herself. "Also that zero was the only key at the bottom middle." Marina then told Agent 3 "Did you her what I said to myself?"

"Yep." 3 Responded. "But which way do the numbers go? In rows or columns?"

"Try rows." Marina said. "I just hopes it has no security system." Agent 3 then began to type the numbers in the keypad, doing so very slowly in order to avoid any errors. After finishing, she pressed a green button, which she presumed to be an enter button. The keypad dimly lit up green.

"Hey, it worked." Agent 3 told Marina. Suddenly alarms blared through the Institution, and when Agent 3 looked around, Marina was able to see not five, but 15 bodies running towards them.

"THERE'S 15 HUMANS RUNNING TOWARDS YOU. RUN!" Marina yelled at Agent 3. She then darted out of the hallway and ran towards the hallway, hating not being able to shoot ink to swim away to avoid any more detection. Strangely enough, the hole from where she came from was now closed. Agent 3 looked behind her, and saw small flashlights approaching her, causing her to ink the entire area near her with her roller. After she was done, she hid in the ink, getting ready to swim the other way when they were distracted. When the humans arrived, they all had a translator box, a flashlights on their helmets, and had their guns lowered when they saw the ink on the floor and walls. The human in the front clicked a button in his translator box and took his helmet off.

"Whoever is in there, we mean no harm." The man said with a British accent. "We won't harm you if you're an Inkling or Octoling, or any creature of this time. If you may, please rise from the ink." Agent 3 thought for a second, then slowly rose from the ink, still holding her roller.

"Y-Yeah." Agent 3 said. "What do you need?"

"I was just about to ask you that." The man said. "Oh yeah, almost forgot. My name is Felix." Felix stuck out his hand for a handshake, in which Agent 3 worryingly shook. "And what about yours?"

"M-My name is classified, but you can call m-me A-Agent 3."

"Don't be scared of us, we are not those damn rebels." Felix said. "In fact we rebelled against the rebels and drove them out, so the Institution is now free of those bloody bastards, but their damage and unanswered questions still remains." Felix looks at the other 14 soldiers. "You all can head back, I'll call for backup if I need it." All the soldiers nodded and headed back. "Now enough of us, what do you need?"

"I'll try to remain as quiet as possible to not make you look suspicious." Marina told Agent 3 through her communicator. "If I have anything important to tell you I will."

"We came here to look for a "black room" or something of the sorts." Agent 3 said. "It was in the middle hallway of your restricted hallways. We came by to see if there might be something to stop a possible invasion."

"Wait invasion?" Felix asked perplexed. "By whom?"

"The same rebels that you ran off." Agent 3 answered. "And they might have an army, by which I mean a really big army, with machines and shit."

"And how did you get that info?" Felix asked. "Did you send someone there?"

"Sort of." Agent 3 responded. "Edward had gone by himself for...personal reasons, but actually found out by Clay, who is somehow alive."

"Clay's alive?" Felix asked. "This guy is crazy, but enough of Clay, back to the army that mike smoke us."

"Oh yeah, so what we were told was that they were planning to not only take over Inkopolis, but also take over other places as well. For this reason, I was sent to go inside the black room and see if there might be a way to put up any type of resistance if needed."

"I would tell you what's inside that room, but I never had permission to go inside." Felix said. "Luckily for you, no one can prohibit me from doing so." Felix started to walk away, heading to the dark room, but he turned around to see that Agent 3 wasn't following. "Come on now." Felix nicely said to Agent 3. "I can't show you the room if you don't come." Agent 3 smiled a bit and began to follow him back to the end of the hallway where the door to the black room was. Felix put his left hand on the keypad and looked back at Agent 3.

"You wouldn't happen to have the password to the room?" Felix asked. Agent 3 grabbed the sheet of paper and proceeded to hand it to him, but took it back.

"I almost forgot, the numbers are in my language, but I can tell them to you." Agent 3 said. She then began to say the password as Felix typed them into the keypad. The keypad's color changed from green to cyan, and a click was heard. Felix pushed the handle, but was unable to open the door. He began to push on the door with his body, managing to creak open the door slightly.

"You mind giving me a hand?" Felix asked. "Or in your case, a tentacle?"

"Yeah, just stand back for a moment." Agent 3 said. Felix the moved out of her way, allowing her to get her roller and smash it on the door. The door moved slightly, but still didn't budge. Agent 3 hit the door three more times before giving up.

"Hey, you mind if I give it a try?" Felix asked. Agent 3 then gave him her roller. Felix's first swing was weak and didn't move the door, but his second hit managed to push the door open all of the way, nearly breaking the roller. After the door swung open, crashes and falling furniture was heard, with sheets of paper flying to the outside of the door. Felix entered the room and shone his flashlight inside the room, revealing it to be a small room with another door. A light switch was to his left, but there was no illumination happening when he flipped it on. The other door had holes in it that allowed light from the flashlight to pass through, revealing a much larger room behind it.

"Here it is, the black room." Felix said. "I can see now why they call it that." Felix looks at the sheets of paper on the floor, containing blueprints, personal records, and facility records as well. "I think it's best if we look around these sheets of paper here. There's most likely something important hidden in here." Agent 3 began to look in the toppled over cabinet.

"I think this was what made the door so hard to open." Agent 3 told Felix. "Let's see if there's something juicy in here." As she began to dig around, she found a black binder, filled with black-and-white photos of soldiers in modern-like uniforms, yet the background was not of human modern times. In fact, of all the soldiers in all of the photos, not one had a recognizable flag on their uniform.

"Hey look, there's pictures of some uniformed humans." Agent 3 said while handing the binder to Felix. As Felix began to look through it, he began to look more and more perplexed, not being able to recognize any of the humans or the flag origin.

" _Who are these people?"_ Felix thought to himself. _"Were they people who took photos in some makeshift uniforms that were unable to be cryogenically frozen?_ _Were they photos found after we were unfrozen?_ _Or were they humans that were somehow cryogenically frozen and happened to awaken before us?"_

"I can't seem to recognize anyone in the photos." Felix told Agent 3. "But they might just be family members that were left behind or something like that." Agent 3's face showed that she didn't believe Felix's answer was correct, and neither did Felix. They continued to look around, only managing to find documents and records of the Institution and its inhabitants. In three sheets, all the inhabitants' names of the Institution were shown, with a large number of them being crossed out.

"I think someone has been taking note of human deaths." Felix said to Agent 3. "And it looks like it was taken by rebels as most of the rebels are not crossed out."

"How many people does it say that died?" Agent 3 asks. Felix begins to count the crossed out names. Shocked by the numbers, he nearly drops the sheets. "What, how many died?"

"109 humans died when this was recorded, and our team managed to kill about 12." Felix said. "This brings the total deaths to 121, not counting any that might've happened in their building." Felix looks towards the other door in the room and thinks for a moment. "If we want to stop any more humans from dying, then any attempt of invasion should be stopped, and I have a feeling that in there, we might actually find something useful." Felix approached the door, opening it slowly, allowing the door to let out a creak. When Felix shined his flashlight inside the large room, he found a light switch to his right.

"This light switch better work." Felix then flicked it on, illuminating the entire room, revealing it to be a secret weapons testing facility, with blueprints of weapon concepts taped across the walls. At the back of the room laid large storage boxes, around 80 of them. The boxes seemed to be tightly closed and with writing that said _**Classified.**_

"Let's go check out those boxes in the back." Felix said to Agent 3. She looked at the boxes in the back and too saw the writing. "If they're marked as classified, it must be for a reason." They went toward the boxes and Felix began to tear open one, revealing a sniper-like object, yet appears to have no slot for a magazine. "This looks peculiar." He said as he took the object out of the container. "This looks like some sort of ammo-less sniper of sorts."

"Looks like some king of cable goes connected to the stock of the gun." Agent 3 commented while pointing at a hole on the stock. "But why would it need a cable for?"

"Beats me, but I think that blueprint over there might explain something." Felix says, pointing at a hung blueprint to the right of them, showing both a diagram of it and data of it. Felix went towards the blueprint and began to read the writing, being genuinely surprised over what he had just read.

"So what is it?" Agent 3 asked.

"From what I read, this gun is an improved version of something called...a Tesla gun." Felix explained. "It has the ability to send powerful, concentrated electromagnetic burst to disable machinery, and can create a mini force field by having incoming physical projectiles be shot out of the air by bolts of electricity emitted from said shield. The hole on the stock is so a source of energy can be plugged in via a cable, or you can slide the middle portion out to use a battery cell instead." Felix slides the middle portion of the gun off, revealing a large hole inside it.

"So the Tesla gun that we have isn't the only type of electrical weapon?" Agent 3 asks Felix.

"You have the Tesla gun that this was derived from?" Felix asks Agent 3 back.

"It looks like it might be." She replies back. The lights in the room suddenly turn off for a few seconds then came back. Moments later, rumbles were felt.

"What was that?" Felix asked Agent 3.

"An explosion or something." Agent 3 responded. In Agent 3's communicator, Marina is heard taking to Marie, sounding very scared. "Marina, what's going on?" Agent 3 asked Marina through her communicator.

"THEY'RE COMING!" Marina screamed trough the communicator. "THE INVASION IS BUT A FEW MINUTES FROM REACHING INKOPOLIS!" Agent 3 stood silent, shocked over what she had just heard.

"Who was that?" Felix asked.

"I was just told that the invasion is a few minutes away!" Agent 3 responded. "We need to get these guns! They might be the only thing that can save us!"

"What about the rest of the boxes?"

"Forget them, we need to take as many of these guns as possible. And get everyone in here to come help." Agent 3 commanded. As Felix ran to tell the other 14 soldiers, Agent 3 began to move the boxes so they can be picked up quickly. Felix then returned with all the other soldiers, each wearing backpacks capable of holding two rifles.

"We each take three of these weapons: two in our backpacks and one in our arms." Felix told the other soldiers. "You can take as many as you can take, and all the blueprints in the room." Felix told Agent 3, who began to take the blueprints as everyone else took the guns. When they were finished, they headed out for the exit, but Felix stopped them.

"Wait everyone, how are we going to supply power to the guns?" Felix asked.

"We can use mini-zapfish to power these things via a cable." Agent 3 said.

"What's that?" Felix asked Agent 3.

"That doesn't matter. What does matter is that they can supply the energy needed to use them. In fact...Hey Marina!" Agent 3 said through her communicator.

"Already heard you and on my way to make them cable accessible." Marina responded through the communicator.

"Let's get going then!" Agent 3 said to the rest, now leaving the room and heading into the outside.

Clay is Inkopolis looking at the nearing army, wondering why they haven't fired at them.

" _Those missiles are most certainly in range, and their guns are about to be as well."_ Clay thought to himself. _"I guess they want a bloodless victory. If that's the case, then they're far from correct."_ Marie approaches Clay, grabbing his shoulder.

"Clay, looks like we may get some backup." Marie said to Clay. "Agent 3 managed to find some humans in the Institution that are willing to help, and they have some weapons that could stop them. At least that's what Marina told me."

"Great news Marie, but we need to slow the army down enough for the backup to arrive." Clay responded. "But I just don't know how."

"Wait I have an idea, but we'll need to do this as stealthily as possible." Marie said. "What we'll do is make ourselves look more threatening than we really are. What we'll do is have Marina hack into their systems and find a way to control their weapon. Once that's done, we'll blow them to pieces!"

"I think that's what they might want us to do." Clay said. "Their systems didn't have any security, which I believe that Kari took so I would believe that they have no security, and I would try to hack their machines and fail. With that, she'll be able to intimidate everyone else, or just kill us on the spot."

"Any other plan then, because standing here will get us killed." Marie responded.

"Standing...standing...THAT'S IT!" Clay yelled in excitement. "I know what we'll do!"

"What is it?"

"Kari wants to keep moving on after taking over Inkopolis, but she thinks that I'll somehow find a way to stop her, right?"

"I believe so."

"That would make her want to stop me at all costs, right?"

"Get to the point."

"If she wants to "stops' me, she'll have to kill me first." Clay said. "And if she wants to kill me, she'll have to follow me: Follow me away from Inkopolis."

"What, that's crazy?!" Marie said. "That won't work."

"With normal people it wouldn't, but with Kari, I know it will.


	33. Chapter 31: Midnight

Clay looked around to find the motorcycle that Edward had stolen to use it again.

"Marie, go tell Marina to tell the backup that I'll be bringing some of the forces towards them." Clay told Marie. "I need them to be prepared by the time that I get there." Clay runs towards the motorcycle after locating it. He gets on it, turns it on, but Marie stops him before he's able to take off.

"What is it!?" Clay asks.

"Marina told me that the human soldiers' weapons needed a strong power source, which Marina was going to make." Marie explains. "She might be done by now, as all she had to do is put the mini-zap fish in the energy capsules, and hook up an adjustable cable. I'll go get them." With that, Marie darts off, tells Marina Clay's instructions, and returns with eight encapsulated mini-zap-fishes in about 30 seconds.

"Good thing you were fast." Clay said while securing all eight encapsulated mini-zap-fishes in the motorcycle. Clay then takes off, leaving only a trail of dust in his place. Meanwhile, Agent 3 receives Marina's message from Clay, which she tells Felix. Felix then commands the human soldiers to make covered shelters with firing windows out of the boulders from around them.

"Why are you telling them to make shelters?" Agent 3 asks Felix. "We should prepare to attack!"

"That's just what they're doing." Felix responds. "The shelters would be so the troops can shelter themselves from some incoming bullets, and this reduces their detectability from far away. But how are we suppose to do anything without a power source for our weapons?"

"Clay is bringing some mini-zap-fishes to power them. The only thing is that eight are being brought, so not all of them will be fighting." Felix then looks towards the human soldiers.

"I need six of you to go back to the Institution and take seven rocket launchers from the armament room!"

"Wait, we have rocket launchers?" Agent 3 asks. "Why didn't you bring them?"

"The rocket launchers are heavy, and we'll take over an hour to get to Inkopolis. But now that we but a few feet from the Institution, we can carry them here."

"And am I going to have one of those rocket launchers?" Agent 3 asks.

"No, you'll be using this" Felix says, handing her a sniper rifle that he was holding. "You're going to be our own sniper. Your Inkling weapons don't have nearly as much recoil as a damn rocket launcher, so I can guarantee you that it would be safer for us all that you don't use one. I've heard that strong E.M.P.'s really mess you up, so you'll snipe from a distance, reducing E.M.P. exposure. I just hope that you are a good markswoman."

"Only the finest."

Clay passes half a mile from the invading army, being in perfect view of Kari, who is sitting in a throne inside of a spider-bot. Kari recognizes Clay in the bike, running away with containers, which makes Kari a bit worried.

" _Where the hell is he going?"_ Kari thought to herself. _"If he's running away, he wouldn't past in front of me. He must be getting someone, or something to stop me. That's it! There was an overthrow in the Institution, and he must be getting them!"_ Kari pressed a button on her left armrest in her throne. "Clay is getting reinforcements! All spider-bots 1 through 197 follow the motorcycle! Leave all mech-soldiers in standard trajectory to Inkopolis!" With her orders, 197 spider-bots began to pursue Clay, leaving three spider-bots and 1,200 mech-soldiers (robotic soldiers) behind. The spider-bots, although slower than Clay's motorcycle, would soon catch up to Clay. Meanwhile, the remaining spider-bots and mech-soldiers continued their march to Inkopolis where Callie and Marie were bringing more enclosed mini-zap-fishes, and Edward and Lela were hooking up the mini-zap-fishes to the Tesla gun. Marina soon came back with her laptop, and connected it into the Tesla gun. Marina began to type away, trying to expand the Tesla gun's chain damage range. Marina lifted both her hands in excitement over finally being able to do so, causing the Tesla gun to start glowing a deep blue hue until turning off.

"Are you sure these five mini-zap-fishes will be enough for the Tesla gun?" Marie asked Marina while hooking the mini-zap-fishes to the Tesla gun. "I was thinking that finding a way to use the great zap-fish as the power source would be far better."

"That can be plan B." Marina responded. "I didn't want to do it as it might be a bit too much for the Tesla gun to handle."

"If it's too much for the Tesla gun to handle, then it will be enough to take the machines out." Marie said. "And besides, the Tesla gun won't be holding the charge, it would just be transferring it, so overcharging it wouldn't be an issue, but overheating will."

"I...guess that's right, but it's too late to do that now." Marina said. Suddenly, missiles were heard being fired at them. Edward looked up and saw three missiles heading straight for them. In response, he picked up the Tesla gun and fired it at one of the missiles, causing it to chain over to the other two missiles, blowing up all three. Debris from the missiles fell to the ground, hitting the buildings below.

"Holy shit, it fucking worked!" Lela yelled. "Fuck, there's more coming!" She said, pointing to five missiles above. Edward fired at one descending missile, chaining off to the other four, and blowing each of them up. More debris fell to the ground.

"We've got to shoot at the spider-bots." Edward said. "They're the ones firing them." Edward looked back at Marie, Callie, and Marina, who were dizzy from the Tesla gun firing. "Y'all might want to stay back." Edward said. Edward ran with the Tesla gun as Lela carried the five mini-zap-fishes towards a wave of 120 mech-soldiers, who revved up their weapons. Edward and Lela ducked behind a large boulder, barely dodging the oncoming bullet fire, and almost damaging the mini-zap-fish containers. Edward fell to the ground after hitting his head on the boulder. More missiles were heard, now flying low on the ground, directly towards the boulder that was covering them. Lela took the Tesla gun from the knocked-out Edward and fired it at the incoming missiles, chaining mot only to the missiles, but to all 120 mech-soldiers, causing them to spark up and shut down. With that, 10% of the mech-soldiers had fallen. The three spider-bots began to back up in order to avoid being hit by the Tesla gun's chain damage.

"Oh no you don't!" Lela said while holding the Tesla gun's trigger, hitting the mech-soldiers with the bolt of electricity. Lela kept firing at different mech-soldiers after they fell to the ground, whilst still holding the trigger. After a while, all of the mech-soldiers had been hit with the chain damage, but from one of them, a bolt of electricity had chained to the legs of all three spider-bots, immobilizing them. The now immobilized spider-bots fired their remaining salvo of missiles not at Lela, but at Inkopolis, making the missile trajectory as irregular as possible in order to avoid being hit by the chain damage. Lela fired the Tesla gun at the missiles, hitting all but one. The surviving missile went into Inkopolis, but got hit by a large beam that destroyed it.

"What the hell was that?!" Lela yelled. She stood up, getting ready to leave, but remembered that Edward had knocked himself out, so she began to drag him, the Tesla gun, and the five mini-zap-fishes back into Inkopolis. Lela arrived back, and saw Pearl with a large speaker-like device wearing a crown.

"What's that?" Lela asked, resting Edward on the ground.

"This is my killer wail!" Pearl answered. "Pretty neat, huh?"

"Yeah but why didn't you-"

"What happened to Ed!" Marie worryingly screamed. "Is he dead?!"

"What, no he's not dead, at least I think." Lela answered. "He knocked himself out by hitting a bolder that we used as shelter. I mean, if he can survive being flung by a missile explosion, then he can survive bumping into a boulder." Marie ran to Edward, resting his head on her lap. Edward began to slowly open his eyes, seeing Marie staring right at them.

"D-Did we win?" Edward weakly asked. "Or are we all dead?" Marie helped him up and hugged him.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" Marie cheerfully said, still hugging him.

"What the hell happened to me?" He asked.

"When you jumped down to take cover behind the boulder, you hit your head and knocked yourself out." Lela responded.

"Really?" Edward said. "That sounds pathetic." Edward noticed Marie blushing while looking directly at him again, making him look at her. Suddenly, Marie went up to him and kissed him in the lips. Marie then backed up, being embarrassed that everyone saw, but Edward pulled her back for another kiss, which she happily accepted. Everyone smiled at them, especially Callie.

"That was cute and all, but we should see how Clay's doing." Lela said. "He and Agent 3 have to deal with the rest of the army."

"I'll go access Agent 3's thermal camera and switch it to standard camera mode." Marina said while typing on her laptop. "I'll go hook up her communicator to my laptop to make things easier."

 _ **A few minutes ago...**_

Clay had finally reached the reinforcements at the Institution, having to dodge missiles fired at him, and nearly being hit by three of them. Although the spider-bots were some distance away, they were approaching quickly and some had begun to fire their missiles, but due to being out of missile range, they detonated mid-air.

"Seriously, that's their missile range? They couldn't make it any better?" Clay said to himself while getting off the motorcycle with the mini-zap-fishes while running towards the reinforcements. Felix noticed Clay's arrival and approached him.

"Glad to see you again Clay!" Felix said while reaching his hands out. "Here, let me give you a hand with those." Felix took all eight mini-zap-fishes to his troops quickly as Clay took his helmet off.

"Thanks-uh, what's your name?" Clay asks.

"Name's Felix."

"Oh, good to see you too Felix." Clay then looks back at the approaching spider-bots, noticing how quickly they were catching up. He then looked on top of a large boulder, and saw Agent 3 laying down with a sniper rifle. Agent 3's thermal camera's lens began to shift, going into standard camera mode. Agent 3 then received a transmission from Marina.

"Hello, Marina?" Agent 3 asked her communicator.

"Agent 3, how's everything going?" Marina asks through Agent 3's communicator. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes, for now at least." Agent 3 responded. "Although the army's approaching fairly quickly, so things might soon change." Agent 3 looks through her sniper scope and looks directly at one of them, noticing that thee was no pilot. She looks at another and sees a pilot. "It looks like some of the spider-bots are automated and some are manually piloted. Probably since they don't have many pilots, or personnel at all!" Agent 3 looks behind her and sees the six soldiers carrying the seven rocket launchers. They hand one rocket launcher to Felix, and they all get into firing position. Clay hooks up the mini-zap-fishes to the E.M.P. rifles with an adjustable power cable, making the guns glow a white hue. They aimed their rifles at the oncoming army and got ready to fire. Clay noticed that no more missiles were being fired, but just assumed that they had very few missiles in them. Agent 3 looked through her scope and noticed that they were slowing down.

"Hey Marina, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Agent 3 asks Marina. Marina zooms in through Agent 3's camera lens and sees the spider-bots slowing down.

"I'm seeing them slow down. But why?" Marina says. Agent 3 jumps off of the boulder and runs to Clay, who had just finished hooking up the last mini-zap-fish.

"Hey Clay, the spider-bots are slowing down!" She yells at Clay. Clay grabs Agent 3's sniper and looks through the scope, and sees all the spider-bots slowing down, now approaching a halt.

"What the hell are they doing?" He asks himself. Clay looks at Felix. "Hey Felix, it looks like the spider-bots are slowing down!" Clay yells at Felix. Felix looks at the army carefully and notices them come to a full stop.

"Hold your fire!" Felix yells at the 14 soldiers. Clay then begins to hear static in his communicator, slowly revealing a voice hidden behind it. Five seconds later, a familiar voice is heard.

"Clay, I know you can hear me." Kari says through Clay's communicator. "Look, I'm not here for way ya know?"

"Well the few hundred spider-bots don't show that."

"Look, how about we make a deal: I will leave my spider-bot, completely unarmed, and you come to me, also unarmed. I have also given my troops the order to not fire at unless I say so. We meet up, and we can talk this out personally. I mean, we humans have to work together, don't we?" Clay thinks about this for a moment and takes a breath.

"Okay, I'll go, but no funny business, got it?"

"Understood Clay."

"So, where are you?" Clay asks Kari.

"I'm the spider-bot leaving the formation. Just head towards me." A spider-bot begins to move to the left, away from the rest of the formation. Clay sees it through the scope, and gives the sniper back to Agent 3.

"Agent 3, lookout for anything strange that you see." Clay tells Agent 3. "If you have to, tell them to fire, but only if completely necessary."

"Wait, what are you doing?" Agent 3 asks Clay.

"Kari wants to "talk" it out to avoid war." Clay responds. "This might be a trap, but this might also be real, especially with the human casualties that we already have. But just in case, I have a surprise of my own." Clay approaches the motorcycle and Felix stands up.

"Where are you going Clay?" Felix asks.

"To do some"peace negotiations" with Kari." Clay responds, now on the motorcycle. "But just in case these negotiations aren't peaceful, blast 'em with everything that you have." Clay revs up the motorcycle and dashes towards Kari's spider-bot. Agent 3 looks at the spider-bot through her scope attentively, while on the other side of her camera, Marina, Marie, Callie, Lela, and Edward are also attentively watching through the zoomed in camera, hoping that there might truly be peace.

"This is a goddamn trap, I know it is." Edward says. "It's fucking Kari!"

"But at the same time, this is Clay who she has to go against." Lela responds. "She knows that she'll lose."

"Whatever is going to happen, I know that Clay has it all planned out." Callie comments. _"I really hope he does."_

Clay has now arrive at Kari's spider-bot, and begins to step out of his motorcycle. At the same time, Kari begins to leave the spider-bot through a hatch on the bottom of the spider-bot, followed by a man. Clay takes off his helmet and begins to walk over to them.

"Well, what's your plan Kari?" Clay asks. Kari breathes in and fixes her hair.

"Look Clay, ever since we had met, there had always been conflicts between us, often affecting everyone else. Both of us thought that it might have gotten better later on, but clearly that wasn't the case, especially now that we are about to wipe each-other out. Just think about it, the point of the Institution was to _save_ humanity, and we're about to end it. So, I'll let my fellow friend/spider-bot pilot explain the rest." The man next to Kari takes his cap off.

"Clay, we would like to ask you to join us in our reconquest of Earth from the Oceanics. They have been the source of all our problems, they have taken over our land, and are even the side effects of our disgusting nuclear warfare/genetic engineering. Imagine it as the Spanish Reconquista, but on a planetary scale. With us together, we will make Earth mankind's world again!"

"This world will not be filled by your kind man." Clay responds. "All this will lead to is the extinction of all intelligent, sentient beings. If you surrender, then we will accept you back in with us, and begin reconstruction."

"There is a third option." Kari says while slowly moving her hand to her hip. Clay notices and begins to do the same. From a distance, 3 notices Kari's action and tries to shoot Kari, but is blocked by Clay's head. "And it looks like we both know what it is."

"Kari, don't do it, just stop this unnecessary bloodshed." Clay said. "Neither of us wants to do this."

"Clay, look around you!" Kari shouts. "We have an entire army to decimate you, we have superior technology and numbers! Not only that, but a little surprise if you manage to kill me. Now tell me, what do you have?"

"I'll tell you what I have: the confidence of youth." Clay and Kari both take their handguns out and shoot each other in the chest, both falling to the ground. Agent 3 sees this and snipes the man next to Kari in the head, instantly killing him. Clay slowly begins to rise, being hit in his Kevlar suit that he always wears. Clay then hears beeps coming from the spider-bot, and immediately knows what it is.

"Oh fuck!" Clay begins to sprint away from the spider-bot. Half a second later, the spider-bot explodes, launching Clay up in the air, along with debris. Agent 3 sees the explosion through her scope, but afterwards, only sees a dismembered arm in Clay's place. Through Agent 3's camera, they all see the exact same thing Agent 3 saw, making them all scream.

"CLAY, NO!" Callie screams through her tears. Felix sees the explosion and missiles now coming from the other spider-bots, and grabs his rocket launcher.

"FIRE!" Felix yells, making the rest of the soldiers, including himself, to fire at the spider-bots. The E.M.P. rifles send an invisible pulse at the spider-bots, shutting them down one by one. Rockets flying from the rocket launchers hit some of the spider-bots, knocking them to the ground. The missiles from the spider-bots now reach the humans, but immediately get destroyed upon contact of an invisible Tesla shield protecting them. Most spider-bots are now fire with all that they have, both missiles and bullets cover the sky. As Agent 3 is sniping some of the human pilots through their glass barrier, she notices that some of the spider-bots begin to turn around and fire onto other spider-bots. Felix and his troops also notice this, now focusing their limited fire on the spider-bots not attacking them. After an intense few minutes, missile and bullet exchange ceases. The remaining spider bots shut down, and pilots slowly climb down, holding their hands above their heads.

"Hold your fire!" Felix yells, prompting everyone to stop firing.

"What's going on?! Why are they doing that?!" Agent 3 yells.

"Looks like the war might be over." Felix responds. He then looks at where the initial explosion was.

"Someone needs to go find Clay's body!" Felix yells. He then faces the spider-bot pilots and makes hand gestures to go look for Clay. One of the pilots understands and gets back on the spider-bot. After getting on, the pilot heads to the general direction of the initial blast.

A body is seen slowly limping, leaving a trail of blood in its path.

 _Need t-to get bac-ck t-to_

 _C-Ca-a..._ The body collapses and slowly closes its eyes, losing consciousness.

 _-ll-i-ie..._

 **A/N:** Movie quote said in here!


	34. Chapter 32: Rebirth and Death

The spider-bot has now reached the location of the initial blast, now looking at flames covering the land. Pieces of metal and a few body parts scatter the area. The pilot then notices a thin trail of blood in the distance, which ends with a stationary body. The pilot moves towards it, and realizes the survivor: Clay, although in extremely bad shape. The pilot grabs the emergency first-aid kit from the spider-bot and runs out. The pilot looks at Clay's body: an intact body with shredded clothing, covered in blood and having 2nd/3rd degree burn. Although looking dead, Clay is still breathing. The pilot cleans and covers his wounds and carries him into the spider-bot. After securing Clay in a seat, the pilot takes off, being as fast as possible. The spider-bot soon reaches the Institution, with a team of medics pushing a stretcher, and many more people standing around. In the crowd of people viewing, Callie, Marie, Pearl, Marina, Edward, Lela, Agent 3, and Sheldon are seen. Quickly, the pilot carries Clay outside, with the medics soon taking him and placing him on the stretcher. As soon as Clay is secured, the medics rush towards the exit, placing him in a pulley, and begins to descend into the Institution. The crowd follows suit after the stretcher is lowered. Clay is rushed into the Medical Room, and placed in a room at the back. Medics move him to the hospital bed and doctors in the room begin treatment. A nurse closes the blinds and the door, allowing no one to look inside the room. Behind the door stands only Callie, not saying a word. Marie comes and taps her soldier. Callie looks up to Marie.

"Callie, it'll all be fine." Marie said. "These doctors know what they're doing." Callie hugs Marie, and begins to cry. Tears fall down Callie's face, hitting the floor down below.

In the battle-torn Assembly Room, 24 spider-bot pilots are standing in one large group, with Edward, Lela, and Felix standing in front of them. The rest of the crowd that accompanied them inside is standing all around them, making a "c" shape. Edward takes two steps forward and clears his throat.

"First of all, we would like to know why you went against Kari? We're not saying that you shouldn't have, really, it was great that you did so, but we would all like to know why?" One of the pilots in the group steps forward.

"We were never with Kari in the first place." She said. "We only complied with her in order to not get killed, like the rest that resisted. It all began when she had effectively captured the Institution. She killed off many people who resisted and threatened that we would end up like them if we didn't comply. She then took us to another building far from here so we wouldn't get any idea of starting a counter-revolt."

"The building that you were transported to, how was it and the machines built so quickly?" Lela asked.

"There were rumors that someone known as Tartar had gained access to human technology and was in the process of starting a mass invasion until he was destroyed. When Tartar was destroyed, Kari had managed to find the place intact and took it as her own. All Kari did is make a few additions and strategize."

"Wait a minute, so you're saying that Tartar had nuclear weaponry?" Edward said. "Because Clay managed to destroy the place with a nuclear missile." Everyone in the room then gasped.

"We never heard or seen nuclear missiles in the facility." The pilot responded. "Some of us were in the weapons department, but there were only plans to begin construction on them, and that was only but a week ago."

"Okay, now look, I'm not trying to make you look bad or anything, but if many of you didn't like Kari at all, and had some access to weaponry, then why didn't you try to somehow stop Kari, or at least rescue Clay, Lela, and the other kid while they were unconscious?" Felix asked. From the crowd of pilots, a man spoke up.

"We did, many times, but failed at every attempt. In fact, we lost about 23 people with all the combined attempts. We would've lost many more, but having very low manpower was the only thing that stopped Kari from gunning us all down."

Lela then asked, "If Kari knew that you would try to stop her with any opportunity available, then why did she let you pilot the spider-bots?"

"She had a plan." The man responded. "She had told us specifically that in the spider-bots that we were piloting, she had explosives that were set to detonate with a press of a button, and said button would be pressed if there was any attempt of going against her. To further prevent us from going against her, she had 12 of her most loyal followers piloting other spider-bots in case the explosives didn't kill us. Honestly, we were unbelievably lucky that we all didn't die when Clay faced off with her. When we saw her draw for her gun, we thought that she would tell Clay about us, and use us as hostages so Clay would do her bidding, but she didn't."

"And I know why." Edward said. The man and the girl looked at Edward in curiosity. "Kari would've gained nothing from doing so. If she told Clay that you were against her and that she would kill you, Clay would've let her do so if it meant that the rest of the humans and Oceanics would live. Not only this, but seeing a whole bunch of spider-bots suddenly blow up would demoralize a few pilots, and give us more hope in winning against a smaller opponent. It sounds a bit strange and brutal, but being Clay's friend, I know that's what he would've done."

"Well now that we now a bit about why you all did this, there are just three questions remaining." Felix said. "One: How many humans are still left? Two: Does anyone else have access to nuclear technology? Three: How will we rebuild the Institution?"

"Well for the first one, it can easily be solved." Edward said. "All the human survivors are in this building. The other facility from where the machines were built has been nuked, so anyone still inside is dead. Felix and his team had chased the remaining rebels outside the facility into the facility, so..." Edward began to count the humans in the Assembly Room.

"There are 41 humans, and 42 if Clay manages to survive." Edward said.

"And to answer the second question." The girl said. "No, no-one should know as one think that Kari told us at the very beginning is that all the information in the facility will remain in the facility until she says otherwise. And she can't say otherwise if she's dead. This is why there was never anyone in the outside who knew about the facility."

"Wait a minute." Edward said. "I know how Kari was able to get nuclear missiles."

"How?" Felix asked.

"She used the Institution's uranium supplies in them. But still, that was some pretty fucking fast weapons development."

"Wait, we have a nuclear reactor?!" Felix says, extremely surprised. "How did I never find out and how did it last?!"

"Well, for some reason, we weren't told about the Institution's power source, probably for security reasons. And I don't know how the nuclear reactor survived for so long. Maybe other scientists managed to preserve both the nuclear reactor and the uranium from the elements for over ten-thousand years. Damn, this place is far more sophisticated than I initially thought."

"Well, about the third question." Felix said. "We have very little manpower to begin Reconstruction, and also extremely limited resources."

"Well, for the resources, we could ask the Oceanics for some resources, at least until we can produce our own." Lela said. "For manpower, we could maybe ask them to help us."

"Actually, we might already have the manpower." Edward stated. "It's all laying in the outskirts of Inkopolis."

"You mean those robotic soldiers that nearly blew our heads off?!" Lela said.

"They only tried to kill us when Kari ordered them to." Edward responded. "We can program them with construction instructions, and we can replace their weapons with tools. There might be some of them that might be too damaged to work, but we should have a fair amount of them. All we really need right now is a way to control them, and get them to follow us to the Institution for construction."

"I'll need someone to go back to where the robots were and reboot their system." Edward said. He began to look around the crowd of people. "Is Marina here?" He asked. From the back of the crowd, Marina's hand is seen being raised.

"I'm here!" Marina said. "I'll go right away, I just need to get my laptop after getting to Inkopolis."

"Awesome!" Edward said. "Message me when you get them running again so I can activate a remote access network when they get in range." Marina waves and runs to the exit. "Wait!" Edward yells at Marina, making her stop and turn around. "I'm sure you'll need someone to take you there so you don't take so long to get there." Edward looks at the group of spider-bot pilots. "Can anyone take her?" A woman steps to the front.

"I'll take her." She says.

"Good, oh-and take this." Edward takes his translator off and hands it to the pilot. "You might need to speak with Marina, and it won't be easy when neither of you can understand each other."

"So, how do I activate it?" The woman asks.

"You don't need to, it's already automatically activated." Edward says. "Just speak to her and you'll be good to go."

"Can you understand me?" The woman asks Marina.

"Yep, now let's get going!" Marina responds. Marina and the woman both walk off towards the exit.

"Well, I'll go start working on the remote access network so it'll be ready for activation when Marina messages me." Edward tells Lela. "Take over for me will you?"

"And who made you the leader?" Lela asked.

"I mean no one really is." Edward responded. "I was just the only one to really rise up for it, well except for Felix, who is a legitimate one."

"I'll take care of my 14 troops and the pilots." Felix adds on. "You all just watch over everyone else, since you are the only ones who know them well. Now come on, no time to waste!"

"I think maybe Felix should be the lea-"

"Who cares about who's leader, we just need to keep moving!" Felix tells Edward, making Lela chuckle. "And that includes you too Lela." Lela stops chuckling.

Marina gets on the spider-bot, being amazed by the inside of it. Marina looks all over the place, like a child in a candy shop. The woman just smiles at Marina and begins to move the spider-bot.

"Hey, do you think that you'll let me pilot this machine later?" Marina asks the woman. "I really would like to."

"We should focus first on getting Reconstruction started." The woman responds. "We can talk about that later."

"And this machine, what powers it?" Marina asks. " **'** Cause I don't think that it's using a battery."

"It runs on solar energy by using extremely efficient solar panels that are exposed to the sun when not in use." The woman answered. "We could've worked to miniaturize a nuclear reactor, but we decided not to for safety hazards."

"I've kept hearing this issue with anything that's "nuclear", why's that?" Marina asked. "Clay told me before, but I still don't understand it well."

"Did he tell you how powerful nuclear energy is?" The woman asked Marina.

"He said that they managed to nearly kill y'all. I also think that the large flash of light was one of those things."

"Well, the issue is not the immediate, but rather the future effects."

"What do you mean by future effects?" Marina asks. "What exactly does it do?"

"Well to put it in a simple way, the deadliness of anything that's nuclear is radiation, which slowly destroys you both on the inside and outside, in a painful way as well. It can also severely damage your genetics, which can have adverse effects on offspring. The worst part about radiation is that it takes time to go away, a pretty good amount of time. This is why we're worried about this kind of technology being in the wrong hands again. If it wasn't for Clay destroying all the nuclear missiles, for the facility to be a pretty good distance away from either Inkopolis or the Institution, and for the strong wind that blew at the opposite direction of either places, we could've all been in some serious trouble."

"Wow, so we were in a far greater risk than I thought." Marina said. "Good thing Clay stopped it." The entire duration of the trip was in silence, with Marina thinking about what had just happened all over again. After a while, they finally reached the resting place of the mech-soldiers. Marina stepped out of the spider-bot and got near one of the mech-soldier. She examined its exterior, and saw that it was perfectly intact. Marina tried to pry open the back of one of them, but couldn't pry open the screw secured back.

"You might need this." The woman said to Marina, giving her a toolbox.

"Wait, why do you have this?" Marina asked. "You're a pilot, not a mechanic."

"True, but Kari required each pilot to carry a toolbox in-case of needed internal repairs of the spider-bots." Marina then looked for an appropriate screwdriver for the screws.

" _They even have the same kind of tools as we do!"_ Marina thought. _"Or do we have the same kind of tools as them? Eh, doesn't matter right now."_ Marina then managed to pry open the back of the mech-soldier, revealing the motherboard of it. Marina grabbed her laptop and began to remotely access the mech-soldier. Marina notices that the weapons can be automatically removed by the mech-soldier, which oddly gets her a bit excited. After a few minutes, the mech-soldier booted and stood up. Marina noticed that the mech-soldier was now under in her control, and suddenly, other mech-soldiers near her began to boot up as well.

"Hey, I might need your help in this!" Marina yelled at the pilot in the spider-bot. "We're going to have to travel a bit!" The woman steps out.

"Sure, get in." She says. Marina gets in and tells the pilot to make the spider-bot walk as close to the mech-soldiers as possible in order to reboot them. The pilot begins to walk around the fallen mech-soldiers, and one by one, the working mech-soldiers rise from the ground. They all begin to follow the spider-bot as if it were its mother.

"How many do you think are following us?!" The woman asks Marina.

"My laptop detects 957 of them, but some of them look too damaged for construction, so maybe like 900." Marina responds. "But that's still a whole lot of a workforce."

"Well let's take them to the Institution!" The pilot said. "And did you tell Edward yet?"

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Marina said, prompting her to begin to type her message to Edward. "Thanks for reminding me."

"No problem."

In the Institution, Edward and Lela are in the Computer Room, with Edward making the finishing touches on the remote access network and Lela talking with him. Edward then gets Marina's message.

"Looks like Marina's done." Edward tells Lela.

"The thing is if you're done." Lela responds.

"Not yet, but I will be in a bit. To be honest, I didn't do much at all since this thing was already here. All I had to do is make a few adjustments so that it can work for our situation." Two minutes later, Edward manages to finish the network. "Now all we do is wait."

"I've been meaning to ask you, how are you and Marie doing?" Lela asks Edward.

'Well, it's a bit com-wait hold up, how the hell do you know?!" Edward asks.

"Looks like Callie can't keep a secret very well." Lela responds. "I mean, you ran away from nearly fucking a celebrity!"

"SHH, don't say it so loudly." Edward said, making Lela laugh. "Look, she's a fucking squid. How the hell can I do that without looking like a goddamn creep!"

"I mean, you already act like one." Lela jokingly said. "But think about this: if neither of you are supposed to be attracted to each-other, then why are you?" Edward begins to think about it for a while, but is extremely reluctant to answer.

"Come on now, you know I'm right, and you want me to be right." Lela said. "You've eaten squid before, but you want to eat it another way, don't you?"

"Lela, please just stop. This is the most awkward conversation I've had in my life, and-"

"And I'm completely right, aren't I?"

"Y-Yeah, I guess just a bit." Edward says. "But only a bit!" Lela laughs and leaves the room. Edward thinks of the worse and grabs Lela.

"Don't you dare tell anyone, especially Callie or Marie." Edward says.

"Hmm, I'll think about it, but if you don't let go, I might make the wrong choice." Lela responds. Edward lets go of her, now being extremely nervous.

 _ **Minutes Later...**_

The spider-bot, along with the 957 mech-soldiers, arrive at the Institution, with Edward's remote access network now controlling all mech-soldiers. Marina and the pilot step out of the spider-bot and approach Felix, who is standing at the entrance.

"Wow, that's way more of them that I thought!" Felix said. "But how are we going to remove their weaponry from their body?"

"Just tell Edward to move them to a desired weapons drop off." Marina responds. Felix then calls Edward on his communicator. "He says that right where they are is fine."

"Well then, here's how we remove them." Marina presses a key on her laptop, making all 957 mech-soldiers drop their guns at the same time.

"Well, looks like we can officially begin Reconstruction." Felix states. The pilot then takes off her translator and hands it to Felix.

"Thanks, I'll go give it to Edward." Felix heads back into the Institution, with Marina and the pilot following him.

In the Medical Room, only Callie and Marie are next to the room, with the medics still operating on Clay. A doctor had told Callie about the progress, which was going well, but he had only a 30% chance of surviving, making her cry all the way till now. Marie had been comforting her ever since they got here, making sure she didn't go do anything irrational. Another doctor is now seen leaving the room, wearing a grim face, approaching to Callie. The medic grabbed Clay's slightly damaged translator and began to speak.

"Callie, Marie, we did all we could." Callie and Marie were now beginning to tear up at those words coming out of the doctor's mouth. "Clay's heart went into Cardiac arrest after nearly finishing the operation, and with all our attempts, we could no longer resuscitate him." At that moment, they went from tears to screams of emotional pain, making even the doctor begin to tear up. Callie and Marie tightly hugged each other in their pain. From the entrance of the Medical Room, Lela appears and runs towards them.

"W-What happened?!" Lela worryingly asks.

"C-Clay's no longer with us." Marie struggles to say through her tears. Lela soon begins to tear up as well. She then begins to call Edward through her communicator.

Edward hears the transmission through his communicator and answers.

"Hello?" Edward answers. Lela begins to tell him the news through her tears.

"NO, NO, HE CAN'T BE FUCKING DEAD! THERE'S NO WAY!" Edward, in a fit of rage and sadness, punches a wall and begins to tear up.

"SON OF A BITCH, KARI, I HOPE YOU ROT IN HELL!"

In the operating room, the doctors begin to disconnect the monitors from Clay. Clay is seen twitching for a bit, but the doctors deduce it as cadaveric spasms.


	35. Chapter 33: Resurgence

At the sounds of banging and screaming, Felix ran to the Computer Room, thinking that Edward was in danger. He arrived, seeing Edward with tears in his eyes.

"Ed, what's goin' on?!" Felix asks Edward.

"Clay is fucking dead!" Edward yelled, in a state of anger and sadness. "Kari fucking got him!"

"Hell no!" Felix says. "I refuse to believe that he's dead!"

"The damn doctors just said that he fucking died."

"Doctors are humans too, and all humans make mistakes." Felix asserted. "You haven't seen him in person. How do you know he's really dead?!" Edward wipes a few tears off.

"You're right, this guy can't fucking die." Edward said. "Let's go see him anyways." They both exited the room and ran to the Medical Room, where a crowd of people was blocking the entrance. They both pushed through the crowd and saw that Clay's room door had been swung open, revealing Callie, Marie, and Lela inside. Felix and Edward then faced the body on the bed. Clay's body laid motionless, giving them both the answer they didn't want to believe. Edward joined the girls, now including Pearl and Marina, in their screams of sadness, while Felix stood in silence. Many minutes passed, with doctors coming in and out to take back some medical equipment. Callie broke away from Marie's near unbreakable hug and walked towards Felix.

"D-Do you know who operated on Clay?" Callie asked. "I want to know if it's possible that there might've been a mistake."

"All the medical staff are also my troops." Felix responded. "I've trained them to never commit mistakes again, and have made no mistake. I wish I could check over everything, but I have no medical knowledge." Callie then lowered her head, but Felix's hand stopped her. "I know this is near impossible to do, but try not to be sad." Felix said. "This is exactly what Kari would've wanted. She wants us to suffer and to never move on, but we mustn't. Instead, we must make Clay's death a motive to move on with the Institution. This is what Clay would've wanted."

"H-He's right." Edward said. "While we c-can be in emotional pain now, it will be over eventually, but if we don't start Reconstruction, we will be in both emotional and physical pain, which will keep getting worse. This is the only place where humans can survive."

"Y-You could all come live in Inkopolis!" Callie said. "We would accept you guys!"

"But our children won't." Edward said. "They wouldn't know the struggle we went through like we do, and it will only go downhill from there until our descendants eventually try to take Inkopolis by force. It's in our blood to do so."

"Another issue is our gene pool." Felix added. "Right now our numbers will be good for now, but in a few generations, there will be a higher chance of genetic disorders, which will continue to grow. Not to mention the chance that some of us might succumb to diseases or manage to die."

"I mean, the Biological Team might be able to somehow genetically modify some offspring to resolve some genetic disorders by using bits of the genetic amplifier that we disposed off "correctly" way back before we were frozen. Although morally wrong, this might save us." Lela then walked up to them, being closer to Edward on purpose.

"This might sound odd, but what about breeding with other species?" Lela suggested. "Humans did it with Neanderthals before, so maybe there's another-"

"Another hominid species around 99.7% genetically identical just wandering around?" Edward interrupted. "I highly doubt that."

"Okay, I think it's best that we all leave the room so the doctors can finish removing the equipment." Felix said. "We should probably give Clay a proper burial too, to at least make him the first human to be properly buried, and not disposed of like the rebels did with the previously killed." With that, they all began to leave the room, with Callie giving Clay a kiss on his forehead. They all headed to the Assembly Room, where the crowd of people had now moved. Even with the large amount of people, there was nothing but silence. Felix then began to speak.

"Fellow friends, we have lost a great man. We had lost him to the same people who had killed our other friends. Now that those rebels had been vanquished, we must move on and rebuild the Institution. Let's do not not only for the people living, but also for the ones who aren't. We must rebuild to honor our fallen, as they are not just some other people: they are our family. We are all a family that has to look one after another, especially in these times where a single death is catastrophic. We had gone through hell not once, but twice, so let's not have to suffer again. We need all the help we can get to bring this place back up, and to make it better than it initially was. We will keep moving forward for our sake and our offspring's sake. We will overcome all other obstacles that cross our path. We will live in peace, and thrive on this planet with the rest of its inhabitants. We will survive!" Everyone began to clap at Felix's speech, raising their morale a tad bit.

"Well, you heard the man, let's get to work!" Lela ordered. "We need all people with technical knowledge to the far left, anyone with agricultural or architectural knowledge in the middle, and anyone with genetic or medical knowledge to the far right. Anyone who doesn't fit in these categories, stand in the back. With this, the groups began to be formed, with the exception of Lela, Edward, Felix, and the 14 soldiers. There were 13 people in the technological group, six in the agricultural/ architectural group, and five people in the back.

" _Good thing all but one of my troops are doctors/medics."_ Felix thought. Felix then began to give orders. "In the far left, all who have knowledge about computing or networking, go to the Computer Room, with the rest going to the generators. For the ones who have agricultural knowledge, head to the garden room, and the rest stay here. For the ones in the back, I need two of you to take note of materials that we will need inside, and the other three to head outside to help get some of the robots inside." With that, they all went in their separate ways, with Edward heading to the Computer Room, and Lela heading to the Medical Room. Felix turned around to see Callie, Marie, Pearl, and Marina standing behind him.

"Is there anything that we can do to help?" Marina asked. "I could go help with the generators."

"And I could watch over the Agriculturalists." Marie added.

"And I could help Lela in the Medical Room!" Callie added.

"And I could watch outside for any threats!" Pearl added.

"Awesome!" Felix said. "Although there are not enough translators for everyone, so Marina will have to reach out to Edward if she needs to tell the workers something. Callie can use Lela for translation as well, and I'll give my translator to Marie since Pearl could just shout and point if she saw something." Felix then took his translator off and gave it to Marie.

"I'll stay here and help the architectural workers." Felix said, but without the translator, Pearl, Marina, and Callie didn't understand. Then they all looked at Marie for a translation.

"He said that he'll look over the architectural workers." They all nodded and went their separate ways.

In the Computer Room, Edward and the three others were monitoring all available readings of the Institution while giving instructions to the robots on the outside. With the robots, the five people began to make the entrance larger while Pearl looked around and occasionally sang to herself. In the garden room, Marie calmly looked over the agriculturalists, some of which had already begun working. In the generator room, Marina was seen checking up on generators while the technicians repaired other generators and checked the nuclear reactor for damages. In the hallways, Felix worked alongside other architects in checking up on the infrastructural damage, and getting the remaining workers to take notes off the damage and necessary materials. Felix and his group moved towards the entrance after a while to clear the path so the robots could have easier access to the inside. The robots were slowly delivered downward via an improvised heavy-duty pulley. Once a few of the robots had made it inside, the computer staff programmed some of them to automate the pulley while the others began to clean up the inside. Rubble was moved to designated areas in the Institution for recycling later on. In the Computer Room, Edward opened a large room in the back of the Institution, revealing a small factory-like room. He then opened another room, revealing pre-assembled support rods, wiring, etc. He finally opened a room containing power tools and cleaning tools. Some workers grabbed the power tools while the robots took the materials for construction. The robots focused work on the entrance and the area near it, leaving the Assembly Room as a material transportation area. The constant work cycle kept going through the entire day. In the Medical Room, Lela and Callie helped to store some medical equipment, and also helped to clear damaged rooms for reconstruction. While they checked inside every room, they avoided Clay's room, in which little activity took place in anyways. Near the end of the day, some medical staff finally entered the room in order to prepare Clay for his autopsy. When the medical staff got the equipment for the autopsy, they noticed that Clay's body had shifted to another position, but it was shrugged off, thinking that it might've been like that already. The staff soon realized that something was up with Clay's body when they heard faint breathing coming from Clay's body. A doctor approached Clay to see if it was him that was breathing. The doctor touched Clay's hand and felt it not cold, but warm. The doctor backed up a bit and told his findings to the rest of the staff. Suddenly, Clay's mouth began to move, as if trying to speak. Another doctor approached Clay and began to talk to him.

"Clay, can you hear me? If you can, say something or move some part of your body." Clay's mouth began to move more, now making understandable sounds.

"I-I-I-" Clay weakly said. The staff gasped at Clay's respond, shocked at what they have just seen.

"Clay, can you say anything else?" The doctor asked. Clay's left arm slowly began to rise.

"I-I'm n-not d-dead y-yet." Clay slowly began to open his eyes and looked around, not remembering the room. A doctor went to grab some equipment in order to check up on Clay's condition, while the rest were standing in awe.

"No Clay, you're not dead." Another doctor said. After a bit, the doctor that had left came back with some monitoring and stabilizing equipment. The doctors began to hook up the machinery to Clay once again and laid him on the bed. Clay reached his right hand to a doctor and pulled her close to him.

"C-Can I see C-Callie?" Clay weakly said. The doctor nodded and headed for the door. She looked around for Lela, which she later found to be talking in the medical storage room with Callie. Lela and Callie noticed the doctor and stopped talking.

"Callie, it's Clay. He's alive!" Callie and Lela went wide-eyed at what they heard. "And he would like to see you Callie." Callie smiled, with tears now forming in her eyes, and quietly asked Lela for her translator. Lela quickly handed it to Callie, for which Callie quickly put on. She and the doctor ran back into Clay's room where he laid, covered again in wires. Clay looked at the opened door and saw Callie, now in full tears of joy. Callie ran to Clay and tightly hugged him, for which Clay did equally. Callie closed in to Clay's face and passionately kissed him in his lips. The medical staffed left the room for a bit, leaving them both alone. Callie sat in Clay's bedside, resting her head on Clay's head.

"I-I thought you were gone." Callie quietly said. "How did you survive?"

"I-I don't know." Clay answered. "I too thought the same. In fact, I don't remember this room at all. The last place I remember being is in the outside, trying to crawl to the Institution. After that, I remember seeing something in my mind, but I don't recall what it was. After it dissipated, I began to open my eyes, and realized that I was not in the outside. I'm just glad to see you again."

"Same. But I should probably leave so the doctors can finish whatever they were doing." Callie got up and gave Clay another passionate kiss on his lips. "I love you Clay."

"I love you too Callie." Callie left the room, letting the doctors back into the room. Callie then looked for Lela, but saw that she wasn't in the Medical Room anymore, thinking that she went to tell everyone else.

Lela is seen sprinting to Felix while trying to talk to Edward on his communicator. She then mamaged to get in touch with Edward.

"Ed, Ed, you hear me?!" Lela said, getting Edward's attention.

"Yeah, what's going on?" Edward asks. "Is everything okay?"

"Clay's alive! He somehow came back!"

"What?!" Edward yelled. "I'm going there now!" Lela continues to go to Felix, which she finds in the entrance, holding a red clipboard. Lela taps his shoulder to get his attention. Felix turns around to see the panting Lela behind him.

"What's the matter Lela?" Felix asks.

"Clay's alive!" Felix looks at her with a bit of doubt.

"You sure, 'cause when I went over, he was gone." Felix says.

"I'm sure!" Lela asserted. "A doctor came to tell Callie and I that he was alive!" Felix placed his clipboard down and followed Lela. The workers look at Felix leaving. Felix notices and begins to speak to them.

"You guys keep on working, it's just that Clay is alive." Felix responds, gaining cheers from the workers at knowing that Clay's alive. Lela and Felix meet up with Edward, and head to the garden room to tell Marie.

"Wait, what about Pearl and Marina?" Lela asks.

'Don't worry." Edward said. "I messaged Marina on her laptop, and she responded to me, telling me that Pearl has a communicator, and Marina had just told her. She said that they'll be in the Medical Room quickly." They all reached the garden room, to which they saw Marie organizing some of the agriculturalists' equipment. Marie noticed them enter and placed the equipment down.

"What's wrong?" Marie asks.

"Clay's alive!" Edward responds, making Marie smile. The workers begin cheering at the news, but continue to work. They all finally reach Clay's room, seeing Pearl and Marina sitting outside, talking to a doctor. Marina saw them coming and waved at them.

"Oh, just in time." The doctor said. "There's some news that I have to tell you."

"What are they?" Lela asked.

"Well, luckily for Clay, he's doing really well, and we are now finishing his previously halted operation. This should takes us a few hours, and you'll be able to see him tomorrow. I know all of this sounds really crazy, hell, I couldn't believe it! Well, I need to go back and help the other doctors now." The doctor stood up and went back into the room.

"This guy is just full of surprises." Felix said. "Twice we thought he was dead, and we were wrong."

"I'm glad that we were wrong." Callie added. "I just hope that he'll be better by tomorrow."

"With what we've been seeing, I wouldn't be surprised if he'd fully healed by tomorrow." Marie said.

"Okay now, Clay isn't a god." Edward said. "But he should be far better by tomorrow though, at least at the pace that this is going."

"But how are the doctors managing to heal him this quickly?" Callie said. "Us Inklings heal fast, but not when we get blown up. That's just crazy!"

"Well, Clay had helped the medical staff previously with better medicine, they also had advanced 3-D organ printing, and some nanotechnology, so I could see how this could've happened so fast." Lela said.

"We should probably head back to work." Marie said. "This place isn't going to fix itself."

"For now at least." Edward added. They all proceeded to head back, working until nighttime, where they all slept in their own **separate** rooms. The machines still continued to work automatically, making as little noise as possible. In the middle of the night however, Edward's door to his room was opened. Edward noticed and rose from his bed, still half-asleep. He then saw a familiar figure in the darkness of his room.

" _Marie, what are you doing here?"_ Edward whispered. _"It's-"_ Edward glanced to his alarm clock, reading **12:07** _"Twelve O' seven."_ Marie slowly approached Edward, not saying a single word. She then climbed on top of Edward and began to remove her clothing. Edward, being half-asleep, did the same.

" _You know what I'm here for."_ Marie whispered. _"How about we start now?"_

" _Just try not to make noise."_ Edward whispered, pulling Marie close to him, and deeply kissing her.

 _ **You can imagine the rest...**_


	36. Chapter 34: Reconstruction

_Alarm Beeping..._

Lela slowly rises from her bed and checks the time.

"6:30. I should hurry up and get ready to continue working." Lela gets off of her bed and begins to change. Afterwards, she makes her bed and when she finished, she looks for her shoes. While she looks for her shoes, she hears the faint sound of repetitive creaking.

"What the hell is that?" She said to herself. When she found her shoes, she put them on, grabbed a portable video camera, and headed for the door. Once she opened the door, she could now hear the general direction of the sound. She followed it to its source, getting clearer and clearer the more she walked until she recognized the sound: Edward and Marie moaning. She stopped for a while, listening even more carefully. She then had an idea of what might be going on.

"Could they be...?" She said. "No, impossible, especially after what Ed did." She kept trying to deny it while continuing to follow the sound to its source, which she soon found out was Edward's room. Her first thought of what might be causing the sound started becoming more plausible. Now a few centimeters from the door, she could clearly hear what was going on. She thought of leaving and pretending she never heard anything, but instead got a better idea. She got her video camera ready and pressed **record.** She quickly opened the door, proving her initial thought true: Marie, on top of Edward, were having sex. She then gasped, first at the fact that this was going on, then to the fact that neither of them noticed that the door was opened, and then again to the fact that she was still watching this go on. While still recording, she loudly cleared her throat to get their attention. Edward and Marie immediately stopped and looked at Lela, with fear in their eyes.

"What...are...you...doing?!" Lela asked. Edward and Marie quickly covered themselves in the bed-sheets.

"Lela, get out!" Edward yelled at Lela.

"And are you recording?!" Marie asked. "Stop!" At this point, Lela was just laughing at their reaction.

"Oh my god, wait until they find out about this, they'll be-" Lela then saw Marie make an attempt at knocking the video camera off of her hands, but Lela managed to dodge it and sprinted to the door. Marie jumped again, but steered herself into a wall, since Lela had opened the door widely in order for Marie to go flying into the hallway. With that, Lela ran to her room and locked the door. Marie and Edward looked wide-eyed at each-other before deciding to put on clothes and go to Lela's room. In the room a few doors down from Lela's room, Felix, a very light sleeper, was awakened by the yelling coming from the outside and the loud shut of a door. Felix, thinking of something bad going on, quickly ran outside, still in his pajamas, and looked around. He saw nothing except other people looking outside as well. He walked back into his room, quickly changed, and stepped outside. All the people that were looking outside a moment ago had gone back into their rooms. Felix then looked at Lela's front door, which had both Edward and Marie furiously knocking on it. Felix, puzzled by what was going on, went up to them.

"Hey, why the loud knocks?" Felix asked them both.

"None of your business, just go back to your room." Edward said.

"Firstly, you're not my mother. Secondly, if it wakes me up, it is my business." Edward and Marie ignored him, still knocking on Lela's door.

"Lela, come out, now!" Marie yelled.

"Yeah, this isn't funny anymore!" Edward yelled. "Just delete it and we'll go away!" Felix then went back into his room and returned with a wire. He approached Lela's door and opened it for Edward and Marie. The door then creaked opened, revealing the Lela staring at them, in shock that they had opened her locked door. Marie immediately tackled Lela and began to roll her around on the floor while Edward began to look for the video camera.

"Hey, stop it!" Felix said while separating Marie from Lela. Marie pushed him back and knocked Lela to the floor again, only to be pulled back by Felix again.

"What's going on?!" Felix yelled. "Why are you tackling down Lela and looking through her stuff?!"

"Again, none of your-" Edward couldn't finish his response as Felix leg swooped him, knocking him to the ground. He then threw Marie to the ground next to Edward, and Felix pinned them both to the ground.

"Do I need to arrest you guys, because I will if I have to." Felix said in a serious tone. Marie turned into her squid form, but Lela grabbed and tightly hugged her, preventing her from moving.

"Ah, it's all Lela's fault!" Edward yelled.

"What did she do?" Felix asked Edward.

"She recorded us having sex!" Edward responded. Felix helped Edward up and then looked straight at Lela.

"Lela, is this true?" Felix asked. Lela's eyes began to dart across the room, as if looking for an answer on the walls.

"N-No?" Lela responded.

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

"I-uh-n-o-all right, yeah, I recorded them. There's nothing wrong with that, right? I mean, they should've closed their door in the first place." Lela responded.

"You should've knocked in the first place." Felix responded. "And besides, no matter what they did or did not do, it doesn't automatically mean that you can do that shit."

"B-But, I mean-"

"Delete it. Now." Edward interrupted.

"Fine." Lela then grabbed her video camera from under her bed and deleted the footage. "There, you happy now?"

"Not completely, but better than before." Edward said. "I'm just surprised that we didn't wake you up last ni-" Marie cut him off by covering his mouth with her hand.

"Wait, last night?" Felix said. "You're telling me that you fucked her last night AND just a moment ago?"

"C-Can you blame me?" Edward said, getting a disapproving look from Marie.

"I'm not answering that." Felix said. _"But no, ."_ Felix quietly whispered to himself. Felix then cleared his throat. "Okay, now that that's taken care of, let's get ready to work!" Felix left the room and accidentally hit the wall with his foot.

"Bloody hell!" Felix yelled, looking down at his feet. When he looked back up, he saw Pearl and Marina standing in a dark part of the hallway, not moving in order to stay hidden.

"Marina, Pearl, what are you guys doing?" Felix asked. Marina made a shushing gesture with Pearl making a stop gesture. "Wait, were you guys eavesdropping on us?"

"Who's eavesdropping on us?" Marie asked while walking out of Lela's room. She them noticed both Pearl and Marina standing outside. Marie just gave them a death stare.

"W-We wont t-tell a s-soul." Marina trembled. "W-We p-prom-mise." Marina elbowed Pearl to make her nod. Marie walked up to them menacingly.

"Not. A Soul." Marie said before walking away. Felix then looked at Pearl and Marina.

"Now that we're awake, we should check up on Clay." Felix suggested.

"Yeah, we could do that." Marina said. "We should probably wake up Callie too."

"She already went." Marie said from the ed of the hallway. "She returned like an hour ago. I'm going to see him right now, want to come."

"Yeaaah, it's going to be really awkward after what just happened." Pearl said. "We'll go after you finish up." Marie rolled her eyes and headed for the Medical Room.

"Geez, she keeps popping out of nowhere." Pearl said. She then quickly glanced behind her. "Wait, she's not behind us listening to this, right? Whatevs, I'm going back to bed." Pearl began walking to her room. "You coming Marina?" Marina nodded at her and began to follow her to her room.

In Clay's room, Marie is seen sitting in a chair near his bed. Clay is now sitting up, and writing on a notepad. Clay then reached out for his tablet and began to look through the readings of the Institution's generators.

"So, how are you feeling?" Marie asked.

"Well, since Callie left, much better." Clay responded. "N-Not trying to be rude, just saying that in that bit of time, I really started to recover. In fact, I was able to stand up normally a few minutes ago without help."

"Wow, to see that just a while ago you were dead, and now you can walk, makes me wonder if you're a human at all." Marie said. "Whatever medicine they did on you must've been magical or something."

"Well, it sort of is." Clay responded. "It's a blend of nutrients and nanomachines that allow for quick repair from the inside out. And the use of quickly made organs from our advanced 3-D printers allowed the doctors to replace my severely damaged organs. If it wasn't for this, I'd still be unconscious and extremely weak."

"But even if you're not as weak as you should've been, you should not be working on the reconstruction of the Institution. It's not healthy." Marie said.

"Well neither is laying around in bed." Clay responded. "And besides, we need all the help we can get, even if I'm still injured." Marie then sat in silence, moving her head around the room ever so often, as if hiding something. Clay soon notices Marie's strange actions.

"Hey Marie, you good? It looks like you did something bad." Clay said. Marie's eyes immediately began darting across the room for a bit, avoiding eye contact with Clay.

"N-No, why would I do something bad?!" Marie frantically said. "And not with anyone else, that's for sure!" Clay looked at her very suspiciously.

"Ooo-kay then, let's forget I even asked." A few seconds of awkward silence soon followed. Marie wanted to say something to end the silence, but didn't know what to say. She then remembered something that she wanted to ask Clay.

"S-So how are you and Callie doing?" Marie asked.

"We're doing well." Clay responded. "At first it was a bit weird for me to be attracted to her, mostly because she was a squid. Afterwards, that feeling began to fade out. It completely went away when I was nearly killed by Kari, feeling that I would never see her again. So now I set aside our obvious biological differences and embrace our similarities. You should do the same with Edward." Marie looked at him with a shocked expression.

"With Edward?!" Marie said. "I think of him just as a frie-"

"Stop lying, everyone knows you have a thing for him." Clay said. "In fact, I'm surprised that you and Edward haven't done anything, shall we say _together."_ Clay then stared attentively at Marie. "Or maybe you already have."

"T-That's ridiculous!" Marie asserted. "I would never do that, especially since I don't know him enough."

"Sure Marie." Clay said. "Just remember, whatever you decide that you guys want or don't want to do, it has to be something that you both agree to."

"What's with the tip?" Marie said. "Not being rude or anything, just asking."

"I don't know, I just wanted to say something wise like that." Clay said. Marie stood from her chair and began to walk to the door.

"I have to go, Pearl and Marina want to see you." Marie said, opening the door.

"But why didn't they come with you?" Clay said.

"The room was-uh, too small, a-and would make us all feel cramped." Marie responded.

"What do you mean small?" Clay said. "This room had more than three doctors in here at once when I was being operated on, along with machinery, and they were not cramped."

" _Sorygottogobye!"_ Marie quickly said before quickly exiting the room. Clay was now sitting still, being confused over what had just happened.

Marie arrived at Pearl and Marina's room, panting after running here.

" _Shit, Clay nearly saw right through my lies"_ Marie thought. _"Although they were pretty shitty lies, so it wouldn't be too hard to see through them anyways."_ Marie proceeded to knock on the door, getting the door to be opened by Marina.

"Hi Marie, do you need anything?" Marina politely asked.

"Oh, if you guys still want to see Clay, I'm done talking with him. You know, so we wouldn't make it awkward."

"We'll see him in a bit." Marina said. "We're just doing something."

"Oh okay, no pressure." Marie left and headed back to her room.

" _They better not tell Clay about what just happened."_ After a few minutes, Pearl and Marina leave their room and go to Clay's room in the Medical Room. They knock on the door before entering.

"Hey Clay, how are you doing?" Marina asked.

"I'm doing fine, thanks." Clay responds. "And how about y'all?"

"We're fine." Pearl responds. "Question is, how the hell are you fine? You nearly got torn to shreds and even died!" Pearl then gets next to Clay's face and whispers _"Are you secretly immortal?"_

"If I was, I wouldn't be in this room." Clay answered. "It's just absurd luck and science that helped me survive. Now enough about me, I want to ask y'all a question."

"What's your question?" Marina asked. Clay slowly stood from his bed, shocking Pearl and Marina.

"Wow, you can walk?!" Pearl said. "How?!"

"Well, my bone fractures were fixed, and so were my torn muscles." Clay responded. "Now for my question, y'all don't happen to know what's up with Marie? When she came to see me, she was acting pretty strangely." Clay walked over to the counter and grabbed a water bottle. Pearl and Marina looked at each other, and Clay noticed this.

"So do you know?" Clay asked.

"Nope." Marina responded. "I haven't even seen her today."

"Then why did you and Pearl look at each other as if you were caught when I asked you the question?"

"We're not suppose to tell anyone else." Marina said. "We promised Marie. Besides, it's not important anyways."

"If it isn't important, then why does she not want anyone else to know, or as Marie said _Not. A. Soul._ "

"Wait, how'd you know that Marie said that?" Pearl asked. "She whispered it to us, and only us."

"For starters, Marie can't whisper at all, and secondly, Lela called me in her communicator, but said nothing, which allowed me to hear what Marie said."

"Just stop asking." Pearl said, being pretty annoyed now. "If Marie doesn't want to know what happened between Edward a-" Pearl covered her mouth after realizing what she was about to say.

"Oh, so it was between her and Edward then?" Clay said. "No wonder she doesn't want anyone to know, and also explains why she was acting so strangely." Clay looked at both of them and then smiled. "I know exactly what happened now." Clay said, walking towards them.

"No you don't." Pearl said.

"Then how about this. Either you tell me exactly what happened, or I'll tell my interpretation of what happened to everyone else. So if I'm right, Marie would immediately go for you, and if I'm wrong, then shame on me. How does that sound?" Pearl and Marina rolled their eyes at him.

"Alright, alright, fine!" Marina said. "We'll tell you, just don't tell anyone else." Marina then began to explain what happened early in the morning, making Clay laugh the entire time.

"...and that's why we couldn't tell anyone else, especially you." Marina said. "There, you happy?"

"Yep. I just have one thing to say: you are both really gullible. I had no idea of what might've happened between Marie and Edward at all! I can't believe you managed to tell something like that!" Clay said. Pearl and Marina were both furious now.

"You are such an asshole!" Pearl angrily said. "Can't believe we felt bad for you!"

"Alright, I'm sorry, didn't mean to offend." Clay said, laughing a bit. "But it's not good to fall for such a trick. If it were anyone else, then you'd both be screwed. And if you're wondering, no, I won't tell anyone. Something like that would be bad for everyone to know."

"Man, you're really messed up." Marina said. "Don't scare us like that!"

"Yeah, but I'm just glad that Marie or anyone else won't find out about this." Pearl added.

''Speaking of which, I really have got to see how reconstruction is going." Clay said. "Who's in charge anyways?"

"Uh, it looks like Felix is." Marina answered. "But I think that Edward and Lela are doing that as well. Why?"

"Because I should probably do that." Clay said. "I'm better at organizing these things, and because of my condition can't really do much of anything else that doesn't include a computer." Clay opened the door and began to walk out, bringing his laptop with him.

"Wait, you're still suppose to rest!" Marina said while grabbing Clay's arm.

"I'm more than fine to begin to help." Clay said while releasing his arm from Marina's grip. "Especially since all I'll be doing is sitting behind a computer screen, or at least until I'm 100% better, which at my rate won't take long." Clay began to walk to his room, still wearing his surgical gown. People in the hallway greeted him, with a few clapping or cheering at him. He entered, seeing it in far better conditions than he remembered it to be.

"Would you look at that, they cleaned my room!" Clay said to himself. "And I didn't even have to threaten or blackmail them!" He began to look through his drawers, and grabbed a plain dark red t-shirt and blue jeans. He took off his gown and put on his clothes, later grabbing a pair of shoes. He fixed his hair a bit and walked outside, being greeted again by people passing by. Clay then walked to the Assembly Room and saw Felix talking to other workers. Clay walked up to him while holding his tablet.

"Whoa Clay, what are you doing out of your recovery room?!" Felix asked with a shocked expression. "You're still not ready to be out, less to be working."

"I'm more than fine to organize things around here, although it looks like y'all started off pretty well." Clay said. He began to open up some screens on his tablet, showing all the connected robots. "And it looks like there's not much in physical labor that we need anymore."

"We are doing pretty well in both workforce and organization." Felix said. "So you don't have to worry about anything. You can go back to your recovery room and rest."

"Are you still in command of your troops?" Clay asked, not looking away from his tablet.

"Yeah, why?"

"I need some of them as material supervisors, and only five in the Medical Room for routine maintenance. I also need some biologists/geneticists to research ways to improve our crop yield. Finally, we need a few people with I.T. Experience to help me in building an A.I. that can run/monitor the Institution's basic functions."

"Looks like you should do the planning then." Felix said. "Then what should I do?"

"What you've been doing." Clay said. "Also, if you can help with security monitoring systems, that would be great."

"But I know little to nothing about computers." Felix said.

"I mean where we should have them placed, and what kind of security system we should have."

"Oh, I guess I could do so."

"But don't worry, I'll get a few others to help."

"A few others, but we don't have many people to begin with."Felix said. Clay then looked up at him, then turned around to look at Callie, who had just left her room.

"We might not have many _humans_ , but we do have the Oceanics that can help us." Clay said. Callie noticed Clay talking to Felix and ran towards Clay.

"Clay, what are you doing out of your room?!" Callie frantically asked. "You're still not okay!"

"Trust me, I'm more than fine to help, so don't worry." Clay responded while caressing her face. Callie smiled at his actions and hugged him.

"In that case, let me help." Callie said. "Marie already started helping, and I should too."

"Just hope that Marie and Edward aren't working together, otherwise they might work like they just did today."

"Wait, what do you mean with that?" Callie asked. Clay facepalmed himself, realizing what he had just said.

"Yeah, what "work" did they do today?" Felix asked.

"Goddammit, I'm stupid." Clay said. "It's nothing."

"Tell us!" Callie and Felix said in sync.

"Okay, so you know how they both have a thing for each other at this point?" Clay explained. "Well, they took it up a notch, _a really big notch._ I guess you can say that they "physically" bonded." Felix and Callie thought for a second, until they soon realized what it meant.

"Wow. I knew it!" Callie said. "About time."

"You know, I never thought that this would happen." Felix said. "But frankly, I'm not surprised."

"Just don't tell anyone else or Marie, got it?" Clay asked them both. They both nodded at Clay's request. "Well, let's get to work." They the split apart, going different ways, except for Callie, who followed Clay, and kissed his cheek. Reconstruction was slow to start, but it got faster and more efficient as the days passed by. After a while, Pearl and Marina left the Institution, needing to be back at Inkopolis to tell the stages and splatfests. Callie and Marie stayed in the Institution, with Marie leaving occasionally to check up on Octavio. After a while, everyone in the Institution found out about Edward and Marie's affairs, but they both didn't seem to care much at this point, especially since they never stopped doing it ever so often. With this, the Institution began its recovery, along with its inhabitants, still knowing that with their low population one day, the human race will finally reach its end.

Or so they believed...

 **FIN**

 **A/N: Well, that was a bit of a doozy. I hope that you all enjoyed the story, and stick around for future stories to come. I wish you all very happy holidays and a glorious new year. See you all soon!**


End file.
